Texas Representative Brandon Gill is introducing legislation that would deny automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to parents who entered the country illegally during what the bill classifies as an “invasion.”
The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to exclude these children from birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
Gill said the Constitution was never meant to reward unlawful entry. “The Constitution was never intended to reward unlawful entry by automatically granting citizenship to the children of those who invaded our country,” he said.
“If we are serious about recognizing that our nation has been invaded, then our laws should reflect that reality. We should not extend one of the greatest privileges our nation can bestow—American citizenship—to the children of those who entered our country unlawfully as part of that invasion. I’m proud to introduce the Citizenship Act in the House to remedy our code of law,” Gill added.
The legislation arrives in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in Barbara v. Trump that children born in the U.S. to parents without legal status are citizens under the 14th Amendment, which extends citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
Gill’s bill leans on a different legal thread. It cites an exception the Supreme Court outlined in the 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that “children of aliens within territory in hostile occupation” owe no allegiance to the country “whose domains are invaded.”
Illegal immigrants are not members of a foreign nation’s uniformed military. Still, the bill’s authors point to precedent for treating mass illegal entry as an invasion for legal purposes.
President Trump has referred to illegal immigration as a “disastrous invasion.” Texas Governor Greg Abbott invoked similar language in 2022, citing Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution—which bars states from engaging in war “unless actually invaded”—to justify deploying National Guard troops to the southern border.
Under Gill’s proposal, individuals who cross into the country illegally or for the purpose of birth tourism would be classified as “invaders,” and their children would be excluded from automatic citizenship.
The bill points to constitutional language requiring the federal government to “protect each State against invasion,” alongside Congress’s power to “establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization.”
Senator Jim Banks introduced a companion measure in the Senate on July 13. Banks has said the Supreme Court’s ruling should push Congress to act before the midterm elections, calling the birthright citizenship issue a top legislative priority.
The House companion bill now joins a growing list of proposals aiming to redefine the scope of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, a debate expected to continue as both chambers weigh further action this year.
