Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 16
Schmitt Urges Revoking Diplomats' Children Citizenship Papers After 5-4 Birthright Ruling
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 16

Schmitt Urges Revoking Diplomats' Children Citizenship Papers After 5-4 Birthright Ruling

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 16

Summary

  • Sen. Eric Schmitt on Thursday asked the State Department and DHS to identify and revoke citizenship documentation issued to foreign diplomats’ children, arguing they are not entitled to birthright citizenship under long-standing federal policy.
  • The demand follows the Supreme Court’s 5-4 June 30 ruling that children born in the U.S. to unlawfully or temporarily present parents are citizens at birth, a decision that blocked Trump’s executive order and prompted Schmitt to press Congress instead.
  • Two days earlier, Schmitt introduced the American Citizenship Act to limit birthright citizenship to children of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, reopening the fight through legislation.
  • His letter says weak safeguards may have let potentially thousands of diplomats’ children obtain birth certificates, Social Security numbers and other records that can be used to claim U.S. citizenship.
  • The narrower push targets a category USCIS already excludes from automatic citizenship, while civil liberties groups still oppose broader efforts to restrict the 14th Amendment’s reach.

Insights

The Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, but can a new act of Congress now redefine who qualifies as American?
Why are children of foreign diplomats born in the U.S. not automatically citizens, and what does this exception mean?