Sen Eric Schmitt seeks to end birth tourism, revoke citizenship for babies of foreign diplomats

The Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump's attempt to clarify "birthright citizenship," but a Republican senator is taking up the mantle of Congress to rework the 14th Amendment, while calling for the Trump administration to revoke citizenship of babies born to foreign diplomats.

"The 14th Amendment confers American citizenship upon persons born in the United States while ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof,’" Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., wrote in a letter Thursday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

"For more than a century, statutory law, judicial precedent, and executive-branch policy have recognized that foreign diplomats’ children born in the United States are not ‘subject to [its] jurisdiction’ and therefore do not acquire citizenship at birth.

"Indeed, even though the majority in Trump v. Barbara wrongfully expanded birthright citizenship to cover the children of illegal aliens and temporarily present aliens, it too recognized that the children of diplomats do not acquire birthright citizenship." 

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Schmitt's letter requests the State Department and DHS investigate "illegal grants of citizenship documentation to foreign diplomats’ children, implement policies and procedures to prevent it from occurring in the future, identify the individuals who have illegally procured citizenship documentation in this manner, and revoke those individuals’ illegally procured citizenship documentation."

The demand comes two days after Schmitt introduced the American Citizenship Act, legislation that would limit birthright citizenship to children of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

"SCOTUS got birthright citizenship dangerously wrong," Schmitt wrote on X. "I'm filing the American Citizenship Act to start the process of restoring the 14th Amendment's original meaning.

"My bill restores the original understanding to prevent birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and tourists."

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The Supreme Court ruled June 30 in Trump v. Barbara that children born in the U.S. to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause. The decision blocked Trump’s executive order seeking to deny citizenship to those children.

Schmitt’s bill is aimed at reopening the fight through Congress.

"American citizenship is sacred — our nation, and its people, are bound together by the values and freedoms our forefathers fought a revolution to secure," Schmitt wrote in a statement Tuesday, when he introduced the American Citizenship Act.

"But the Supreme Court’s erroneous interpretation of the 14th Amendment last month degraded the meaning of that citizenship by extending it to children born to illegal or temporary aliens — including ‘birth tourists’ — who come to our country in violation of our laws. 

"That is an egregious departure from the original meaning of the 14th Amendment."

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The Thursday letter focuses on a narrower category: children of foreign diplomats. Federal policy has long treated children born in the U.S. to accredited foreign diplomatic officers as outside the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship guarantee because their parents are not fully subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) says such children do not acquire citizenship at birth, though they may register for lawful permanent residence.

Schmitt argued that despite the rule, foreign diplomats’ children have still been able to obtain birth certificates, Social Security numbers and other documents that can be used to claim U.S. citizenship. His letter said agencies lack adequate safeguards to flag when a newborns' parents are foreign diplomats before citizenship-related documents are issued.

"Foreign diplomats’ children using improperly procured citizenship documentation to illegally claim citizenship degrades the meaning of American citizenship, undermines our sovereignty, and threatens our national security," Schmitt wrote.

Schmitt urged the State Department and DHS to investigate the scope of what he called improper grants of citizenship documentation, prevent future issuance, identify those who received the documents and revoke documentation that was unlawfully obtained. His letter cited public reporting and legal scholarship to claim that potentially thousands of diplomats’ children may have received citizenship records, despite not being citizens at birth.

Schmitt, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, has made birthright citizenship a central focus after the Supreme Court decision. He previously announced plans for a constitutional amendment and led an amicus brief backing Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order.

Civil liberties groups have sharply opposed efforts to restrict birthright citizenship. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which challenged Trump’s executive order, argued the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born in the U.S. and said no president can rewrite that constitutional protection.

Schmitt, however, said the court’s ruling strengthened the case for congressional action.

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"I introduced the American Citizenship Act to restore that original meaning, challenge the Supreme Court’s decision, protect the sacred bond of American citizenship, and honor the legacy of our nation’s patriots who fought to protect what it means to be an American," Schmitt's statement concluded.

"It would restart our fight in the courts for sanity in birthright citizenship. While the Supreme Court’s decision threatens to destroy American citizenship, I am fighting to defend it."

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.