Key GOP lawmaker seeks vote to restrict birthright citizenship as Trump weighs second SCOTUS appeal

Pushing back against the recent Supreme Court ruling that protected birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment, House Republicans are renewing a legislative push to restrict birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants in order to force the issue back before the high court.

Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., a House subcommittee chairman long influential on immigration issues, told the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Thursday that he was co-sponsoring congressional bills aimed at clarifying the scope of birthright citizenship, ensuring that it only applied to children of citizens, permanent residents, or military members. 

“Hopefully, by limiting that, we'll give it another shot at the Supreme Court,” Grothman said. 

Specifically, Grothman is co-sponsoring the Birthright Citizenship Act which, by amending the Immigration and Nationality Act, restricts birthright citizenship to children born to parents who are “(1) a U.S. citizen or national, (2) a lawful permanent resident residing in the United States, or (3) a non-U.S. national (alien under federal law) with a lawful immigration status who is performing active service in the Armed Forces.”

Grothman stated he hopes Speaker Mike Johnson will bring the bill to the House floor for a vote “as early as July.” 

This comes after a landmark Supreme Court decision on June 30 in Trump v. Barbara where the Court struck down President Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of temporary visa holders or illegal immigrants. It upheld that the 14th Amendment automatically guarantees that children born on U.S. soil are citizens. 

“I should say this is the worst Supreme Court decision as far as impact on our country in my lifetime,” Grothman said. 

On Wednesday, Trump also announced that he would get the Supreme Court to rehear the birthright citizenship case from the executive order he signed on Jan. 20, 2025. The Supreme Court has not agreed to rehear the ruling, and has not agreed to rehear already-argued cases since 1965, with the last time it reversed a decision from an argued case being in 1956.

“AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP IS NOT FOR SALE! In fact, that is a crime, and therefore, the Supreme Court’s ruling is wrong,” Trump said in a Truth Social Post on Wednesday. “I will be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY. This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision,” he said.

Much like the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote and which stalled in the Senate three times, Grothman noted that the Birthright Citizenship Act faces an obstacle due to the Senate’s cloture rule, requiring 60 votes in the Senate to bypass a Democratic filibuster, which the Republicans currently do not have. 

“We have some people that are barely Republican up there, but I'd be very disappointed if any Republican would even think about voting against this,” Grothman said.  

However, the Wisconsin representative said that if Republicans won control of both the House and the Senate, then it would be “one of those things we can look at doing next year.” 

Criticizing the massive influx of illegal immigration under the Biden administration, Grothman also said that “the easiest way to change America is to get a lot more people in America from different countries who are not familiar with our values, not familiar with our freedoms," and that moves by states to restrict birthright citizenship would also be "a good thing."

He said that he “would not be surprised” if Wisconsin passed measures to prevent birth tourism, though he noted that it was “one of those things where you need a Republican governor.” 

The lawmaker emphasized that it was not “impossible” to become a citizen in the country, stating that about 800,000 people were sworn in as new citizens each year. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency welcomed 818,500 new citizens in 2024.

Proponents of the bill are scrutinizing the massive scale of alternative pathways to citizenship. The Pew Research Center estimates that 320,000 babies were born to mothers in 2023 who were unauthorized immigrants or held temporary legal status in the U.S., representing about 9% of total U.S. births.

“As far as changing America, I can't think of anything that has a greater impact than saying, ‘your mother can come here,’ have you as a tourist, as on a student visa... and that person becomes a citizen. That's just outlandish,” Grothman said.