Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is introducing legislation that would finally end the nation’s birthright citizenship policy that rewards the United States-born children of illegal aliens with automatic American citizenship.
On Tuesday, Cotton will introduce the Constitutional Citizenship Clarification Act, – News has exclusively learned.
The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify that the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, often referred to as “anchor babies,” are not eligible for birthright American citizenship.
Likewise, the bill would ensure that the U.S.-born children of foreign terrorists and foreign spies are similarly not rewarded with birthright American citizenship.
“There is no constitutional right for illegal aliens to cross the border to gain citizenship for their children,” Cotton said in a statement. “Granting birthright citizenship to illegal aliens has contributed to the highest levels of illegal immigration in history. Fixing this will help reduce the damage from Joe Biden’s catastrophic border crisis.”
The bill is critical to President Donald Trump’s America First agenda, which has sought to end birthright citizenship through executive order.
Last week, Judge Joseph LaPlante, appointed by former President George W. Bush, halted Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship from taking effect.
Anchor babies are rewarded with birthright citizenship despite their parents having no legitimate ties to the U.S., many having only recently arrived. Years later, when the child is considered an adult, they can sponsor their parents and foreign relatives for green cards — anchoring their family in the U.S. for generations.
In 2023, the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that about 225,000 to 250,000 anchor babies were delivered to illegal alien parents, accounting for about seven percent of all U.S. births that year.
The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has never explicitly ruled that the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens must be granted birthright citizenship, and many legal scholars dispute the idea.
Many leading conservative scholars argue the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment does not provide mandatory birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens or foreign nationals, because these children are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction as that language was understood when the 14th Amendment was ratified.
