Citizenship Act of 2026

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 9854 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 9854

    To declare that any person who enters the United States without
   authorization or for the purpose of engaging in birth tourism is
 considered an invader and to amend section 301(a) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act to exclude the children of invaders from birthright
                              citizenship.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 22, 2026

Mr. Gill of Texas (for himself, Ms. Boebert, Mr. Carter of Georgia, Mr.
 Weber of Texas, Mrs. Miller of Illinois, and Mr. Hunt) introduced the
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

    To declare that any person who enters the United States without
   authorization or for the purpose of engaging in birth tourism is
 considered an invader and to amend section 301(a) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act to exclude the children of invaders from birthright
                              citizenship.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Citizenship Act of 2026''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Section 4 of article IV of the Constitution of the
        United States imposes a constitutional duty on the United
        States to ``protect each [State] against invasion''.
            (2) Section 8 of article I of the Constitution of the
        United States gives Congress the power to ``establish a uniform
        Rule of Naturalization''.
            (3) According to James Madison, the naturalization power
        given to Congress under article I of the Constitution of the
        United States was designed to protect States from being forced
        to accept liberal immigration policies.
            (4) Illegal immigration into the United States has become a
        national security crisis.
            (5) Under the Biden administration, millions of migrants
        flooded our Nation's borders or were otherwise permitted to
        enter the country, including known cartel members, violent
        criminals, and terrorists.
            (6) President Biden abused emergency temporary immigration
        programs, such as parole and temporary protected status, to
        allow millions of otherwise illegal aliens to remain in the
        United States and receive public benefits.
            (7) The Trump administration has worked hard to secure the
        southern land border of the United States and is carrying out
        the largest mass deportation effort in our Nation's history.
            (8) Notwithstanding, such efforts, as many as 15,000,000
        illegal aliens remain in the United States.
            (9) Nearly 16 percent of the population of the United
        States is foreign born and most of the recent increase in
        foreign births can be attributed to illegal immigration.
            (10) Illegal immigration has downstream consequences for
        many aspects of American life, including increased housing
        prices, depressed wages, threats to public safety, and fewer
        jobs for United States citizens.
            (11) Worldwide, mass migration has increasingly been used
        by migrants' countries of origin to exert control over foreign
        territory, which has been referred to by scholars as the global
        ``weaponization'' of migration.
            (12) Some Mexicans views migration to the United States as
        a method of reconquering territory acquired by the United
        States during the nineteenth century. Mexican politicians
        sometimes refer to certain United States cities as ``occupied
        territories'' or ``migrant land''.
            (13) An estimated 1,500,000 nationals of the People's
        Republic of China have acquired United States citizenship by
        being born in the United States by surrogates, a practice that
        has been encouraged by the Chinese Communist Party.
            (14) On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump declared
        that the mass unlawful movement of persons into the United
        States constitutes an invasion. The governors of multiple
        States have also declared a state of invasion at the southern
        border.
            (15) The United States, at various times, has treated
        private, non-state actors, including pirates, slave traders,
        and terrorists, as enemy combatants.
            (16) While millions of illegal aliens remain in the United
        States and birth tourism is allowed to be exploited by foreign
        adversaries, this invasion remains ongoing.
            (17) As confirmed by Federal courts and judges, including
        California v. United States, 104 F.3d 1086, 1091 (9th Cir.
        1997); Padavan v. United States, 82 F.3d 23, 28 (2d Cir. 1996);
        Chiles v. United States, 69 F.3d 1094, 1097 (11th Cir. 1995),
        and United States v. Abbott, 110 F.4th 700, 726-29 (5th Cir.
        2024) (Ho, J., concurring in part), the determination of the
        existence of an invasion is a nonjusticiable question committed
        to the political branches and is not reviewable by the Federal
        courts. Similar to other political questions, a determination
        of invasion involves ``a lack of judicially discoverable and
        manageable standards'' that courts can use to adjudicate such
        determinations. Zivotofsky ex rel. Zivotofsky v. Clinton, 566
        U.S. 189, 195 (2012).
            (18) Children of foreign invaders who are born on United
        States soil are not entitled to birthright citizenship under
        the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
        States.
            (19) Birthright citizenship did not apply to children born
        to invaders under the British common law, and the framers of
        the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment understood
        the clause to exclude the children of invaders.
            (20) Although the United States Supreme Court broadened the
        meaning of the Citizenship Clause in Trump v. Barbara, 609 U.S.
        _ (2026), the court did not hold that children born to invaders
        are entitled to birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court
        reaffirmed United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649, 658
        (1898), which held that ``children within territory in hostile
        occupation'' are not entitled to birthright citizenship.
            (21) It is therefore consistent with the holding in Barbara
        v. Trump for Congress to invoke its constitutional authority
        by--
                    (A) codifying President Trump's declaration of an
                invasion; and
                    (B) revoking birthright citizenship from children
                who are born in the United States to a woman who is
                unlawfully present or to a woman engaged in birth
                tourism.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL DECLARATIONS.

    (a) Invaders.--Congress declares that all of the following persons
are designated invaders while remaining in the United States for
purposes of section 301(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as
amended by section 4:
            (1) Any person who has not been lawfully admitted to the
        United States (as defined in section 101(a)(13)(A) of the
        Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(13)(A))).
            (2) Any person who is otherwise unlawfully present under
        section 212(a)(9)(B)(ii) of such Act (8 U.S.C.
        1182(a)(9)(B)(ii)).
            (3) Any person seeking admission to the United States under
        the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.)
        who, in the opinion of the consular officer at the time of
        application for a visa, or in the opinion of the Attorney
        General at the time of application for admission or adjustment
        of status, is seeking admission or adjustment of status for the
        purpose of giving birth to a child in the United States.
    (b) Commercial Surrogacy Contracts.--Congress declares that any
person who is a national of a covered nation (as defined in section
4872(f)(2) of title 10, United States Code) and enters into a
commercial surrogacy contract with a person in the United States, or
with a surrogacy broker who arranges a commercial surrogacy contract
with a person in the United States, for the purpose of having a child
birthed in the United States shall be designated an invader for
purposes of section 301(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as
amended by section 4.

SEC. 4. CHILDREN OF INVADERS NOT ENTITLED TO BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP.

    Section 301(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1401(a)) is amended to read as follows:
            ``(a) a person born in the United States, and subject to
        the jurisdiction thereof, which shall not include any of the
        following persons:
                    ``(1) A person who was born to an invader (as
                defined in paragraph (1) or (2) of section 3(a) of the
                Citizenship Act of 2026) if such person's mother was
                not lawfully admitted to the United States or was
                otherwise unlawfully present in the United States and
                such person's father was not a United States citizen or
                a lawful permanent resident of the United States at the
                time of such person's birth.
                    ``(2) A person who was born to an invader (as
                defined in section 3(a)(3) of the Citizenship Act of
                2026) if such person's mother sought admission to the
                United States or adjustment of status in the United
                States for the purpose of giving birth to a child in
                the United States and the father was not a United
                States citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the
                United States at the time of such person's birth.
                    ``(3) A person born to an invader (as defined in
                section 3(b) of the Citizenship Act of 2026) as the
                result of a commercial surrogacy contract.''.

SEC. 5. JUDICIAL REVIEW.

    No court is authorized to review a determination by the President
or by Congress of the existence of an invasion.

SEC. 6. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.

    (a) Jurisdiction.--Nothing in this Act may be construed to revoke
the criminal or civil jurisdiction of the United States, or of any
State, over invaders for violations of Federal or State law.
    (b) Military Force.--Nothing in this Act may be construed to
authorize the use of military force under the War Powers Resolution (50
U.S.C. 1541 et seq.).

SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act shall apply to all children born after the date of the
enactment of this Act to a person who, at the time of such birth, was
designated as an invader pursuant to section 3.

SEC. 8. SEVERABILITY.

    Any provision of this Act, including any amendment made by this
Act, which is held to be invalid or unenforceable by its terms, or as
applied to any person or circumstance, shall be construed so as to give
it the maximum effect permitted by law, unless such holding shall be
one of utter invalidity or unenforceability, in which event such
provision shall be deemed severable from this Act and shall not affect
the remainder of this Act, or the application of such provision to
other persons not similarly situated or to other, dissimilar
circumstances.
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