Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Trump v. Barbara that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause. (2) The majority opinion in Trump v. Barbara, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Barrett, adopts an unduly narrow and formalistic interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment that ignores the real-world consequences of birth tourism and reflects a departure from common-sense understandings of jurisdiction, sovereignty, and the proper limits of the Citizenship Clause. (3) Justice Clarence Thomas authored an outstanding and blistering dissent in Trump v. Barbara, rigorously dismantling the majority’s reasoning and warning that its expansive interpretation of the Citizenship Clause dangerously devalues American citizenship and invites further abuse of birthright citizenship by those unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States. (4) Businesses, facilitators, and foreign-based agencies openly advertise and sell packages designed to enable foreign nationals to travel to the United States for the primary purpose of obtaining United States citizenship for a child, thereby treating American citizenship as a commercial product. (5) American citizenship is a sovereign privilege that should never be bought, sold, marketed, or otherwise commercialized, and that the continued operation of the birth tourism industry undermines public confidence in the integrity of the Nation's immigration system. (6) The laws of numerous democratic nations, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Germany, require a meaningful legal connection between a child and the nation, such as the citizenship or lawful residence of a parent, before citizenship is conferred at birth. (7) The widespread abandonment of unconditional birthright citizenship by many democratic nations reflects a recognition that citizenship is appropriately tied to enduring allegiance and legal attachment to the sovereign, rather than the mere geographic location of birth. (8) Congress retains broad authority under Article I of the Constitution to regulate immigration, determine the conditions of admission of aliens, and establish grounds of inadmissibility under section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182). (9) Congress has repeatedly amended section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)) to create new grounds of inadmissibility when it has determined that certain conduct is contrary to the national interest and the proper administration of the immigration laws. (10) The practice commonly known as birth tourism exploits the benefits associated with United States citizenship and undermines the integrity of the Nation's immigration system.