Indiana senator’s bill would codify Trump’s birthright citizenship order

Senate Indiana senator’s bill would codify Trump’s birthright citizenship order Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/14/26 4:09 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/14/26 4:09 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Indiana Republican Sen. Jim Banks on Monday introduced a bill that would codify President Trump’s Day 1 executive order reshaping the definition of birthright citizenship in the U.S.

The Citizenship Act of 2026 requires that any person who enters the U.S. “without authorization or for the purpose of engaging in birth tourism is considered an invader.”

Banks’s office said in a statement that the bill would find that “illegal immigration and birth tourism constitute an ongoing invasion and amends federal law to confirm that children born to illegal aliens and birth tourists are not entitled to automatic citizenship.”

“The Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision was an unprecedented assault on American sovereignty, and we must do whatever it takes to save our country,” Banks said in the statement. “I’m leading the Citizenship Act to reverse the effects of this consequential ruling and ensure the millions of illegal aliens that invaded our country can’t continue to exploit our immigration system.”

Banks told Fox News that the bill was inspired by Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion saying Trump’s order conflicted with federal birthright citizenship law passed by Congress in 1940.

Kavanaugh joined the 6-3 majority upholding birthright citizenship and ruling Trump’s order unconstitutional. The high court stated that such a change could only be ratified by a constitutional amendment.

Trump relented and urged members of Congress to take on the task of changing the law with a constitutional amendment.

Banks became the second Republican lawmaker seeking to codify Trump’s executive order. Last week, Rep. John McGuire III (R-Va.) introduced the Birthright Citizenship Clarification Act to codify the order and strike down the jus soli or “right of the soil” legal principle that grants citizenship to anyone born within a nation’s territory.

The Virginia lawmaker’s amendment would strike citizenship for those who are children of a mother with lawful temporary presence and a father without citizenship, as well as other less common situations, like children born on a foreign ship or children of foreign government officials.

Trump made his birthright citizenship executive order one of his Day 1 policies upon retaking the White House. It would require a baby born on U.S. soil to have at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status to gain birthright citizenship.

Days after the high court’s ruling, Trump said he would have the justices rehear his case.

“I will be asking for a Rehearing by the United States Supreme Court, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This miscarriage of justice will destroy America if they don’t change their absolutely insane decision.”