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Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) on Tuesday said “birth tourism” is an issue Congress should address, “not by executive fiat or judicial activism,” after the Supreme Court ruled against President Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship.
Three conservative justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, joined all three liberal justices in ruling that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship by default for almost all children born on U.S. soil, which extends to those born to parents in the country unlawfully.
Lawler said that the court’s decision was “well-reasoned and thought out on an issue that has been debated for decades.”
“If Congress and the American people seek to change it, it will require a constitutional amendment and the overwhelming majority of Americans making that decision,” he wrote on the social platform X. “From my vantage point, the issue of ‘birth tourism’ is something to address, but through the legislative process, not by executive fiat or judicial activism.”
Roberts read in his opinion that the “trouble” with the president’s case “is that there is scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view.” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the dissent that the opinion “will stand the test of time” as it “devalues” American citizenship.
The New York Republican was one of several GOP elected officials, including several with legal backgrounds, who broke with Trump’s executive order challenging birthright citizenship and called on Congress to ratify a constitutional amendment.
“Ordinary legislation cannot repair the damage,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) wrote in a lengthy statement on the social platform X. “A constitutional amendment is now required. Accordingly, I will be announcing a forthcoming constitutional amendment to restore the sacred bond between American citizens and their government.”
Trump, too, relented to the court’s decision and urged Congress to act.
“No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”
The president ordered on the first day of his second administration that birthright citizenship would require a baby born on U.S. soil to have at least one parent with citizenship or permanent legal status to become a legal U.S. citizen.
The challenge to Trump’s executive order brought the president to the Supreme Court to observe oral arguments in April, a first for a sitting president. He later frequently predicted that his case would fail.
The court’s decision on Tuesday marked one of its most stinging blows to the president’s crackdown on undocumented and lawful immigration.
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