Renewed call for constitutional amendment after SCOTUS ruling

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(The Center Square) – After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment applies to children born in the U.S. to mothers who are in the country illegally, there is a renewed effort in Congress to support a constitutional amendment to provide clarity to the amendment’s Citizenship Clause. The Department of Justice also issued a directive to aggressively prosecute birth tourism.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, urged Americans to call their members of Congress to “tell them to support my Constitutional Amendment to end Birthright Citizenship. We must protect the integrity of American citizenship.” 

“Under current interpretations of American law, anyone born on American soil automatically becomes a U.S. citizen, regardless of whether the parent was here legally or not,” Paul said. “This is wrong and not at all the intent of those who wrote the 14th Amendment.

“We are a country filled with immigrants, and legal immigration is valuable and should be protected. But we are also a country whose borders have been too open and our generosity exploited too often,” he said, adding that President Donald Trump has secured the U.S. southwest border more than any other president. “But we will have more to do,” he said. “We need to make sure that only children born to legal residents of the U.S. are automatically citizens.”

Paul’s proposed language would amend a key phrase in the Citizenship Clause, the first sentence of the amendment, as italicized: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The amendment defines “a person considered subject to the jurisdiction of” a U.S. citizen if one of their parents is a U.S. citizen, is “an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States” or is an “alien with lawful status under the immigration laws performing active service in the Armed Forces.”

Republican U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah have made the same argument that the Citizenship Clause needs to be amended. However, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, argues a constitutional amendment isn’t needed, Congress can pass a law to make the change, The Center Square reported. 

Amending the Constitution is difficult. One way is to pass the amendment by a two-thirds majority vote in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. The amendment would then need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states, 38 out of 50.

Another way is through a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures. This has never happened. All 27 amendments to the Constitution were passed by Congress and ratified by the states.

The Supreme Court’s ruling has raised concerns that it will worsen an already rampant crime of birth tourism fraud, The Center Square reported.  

After the ruling, the DOJ issued a directive to aggressively prosecute the crime, which it argues is facilitated through false visa applications that exploit the immigration system.  

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said the DOJ “will investigate and hold accountable those who engage in this unlawful conduct as well as those who solicit and sell these criminal services to others.” While many birth tourism cases are prosecuted as visa fraud, he's urging U.S. attorneys, the DOJ Criminal Division and the Department of Homeland Security to also prosecute potential charges of wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, healthcare fraud, among others as they apply. He also said the DOJ is providing additional resources to help with investigation and prosecution of birth tourism crimes.

The memo cites examples of birth tourism schemes facilitated by Chinese and Turkish groups whose leaders were sentenced to years in prison. The schemes involved facilitating the transport and housing of hundreds of women to California and New York to give birth. In return, they charged a combined millions of dollars in fees, provided fraudulent visas and guidance on how to hide pregnancies from immigration officials. 

The DOJ has been prosecuting immigration fraud and birth tourism schemes nationwide, spanning from California to the Northern Mariana Islands. 

The Office of Texas Attorney General also sued a Houston area “Chinese birth tourism” center alleging it’s “unlawfully facilitating the invasion of Chinese nationals into Texas for the sole purpose of giving birth,” The Center Square reported.