Sen. Jim Banks to Introduce Citizenship Act on Birthright Citizenship

Sen. Jim Banks will introduce the Citizenship Act legislation Monday afternoon when the Senate opens for business. The measure aims to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants and birth tourists by defining them as children of invaders under federal law.

Fox News reported that the legislation references Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurrence in the Trump v. Barbara Supreme Court case from last month. Kavanaugh stated that President Trump’s executive order conflicted with federal birthright citizenship law but suggested Congress could amend the statute to create new exceptions.

The bill declares that any person who enters the United States without authorization or for the purpose of engaging in birth tourism is considered an invader. It amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to exclude children of such invaders from birthright citizenship and codifies President Trump’s 2025 executive order that cites the term invader regarding illegal immigration across the southern border.

V. Wong Kim Ark case to support its changes. In that 1898 ruling, Justice Horace Gray identified exceptions to birthright citizenship that include diplomats’ children, enemies within, and those engaged in hostile occupation of U.S.

Territories. Fox News reported that the bill cites Article IV of the Constitution, which requires the federal government to protect each state against invasion, and Article I, which gives Congress power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. It also references President James Madison’s 1788 analysis that the Constitution vested Congress with authority over naturalization.

The measure states that some Mexican nationals view migration northward as a means of re-conquering territory the U.S. won during 1840s military hostilities finalized in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. It further states that Chinese birth tourism is encouraged directly by the CCP.