(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says it may be time for Congress to act on what’s known as birthright citizenship, after the U-S Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down President Trump’s executive order that sought to end the practice. “I think there’s a very narrow area where the federal government should get involved,” Grassley says. “It’s subterfuge to get people to get into the country just because a baby’s born here.”
Grassley says what’s happening is an “abuse” of our constitutional privileges. “There’s an industry, and I don’t know how big this industry is, and it probably involves wealthy people from other countries,” Grassley says, “but there’s a crusade for a lot of people to come to this country in the late stages of pregnancy to give birth to a baby and then turn around and go back.” The U-S Supreme Court has ruled that under the 14th Amendment to the U-S Constitution, anyone born in this country is considered a U-S citizen.
One justice wrote in a dissent that President Trump’s executive order on the topic had violated a federal law on birthright citizenship. The president’s executive order from January of 2025 aimed to deny automatic citizenship to any children born in the U-S to parents who were in the country illegally or on temporary visas. Grassley, a Republican, did not call for a repeal of the 14th Amendment, but says he believes it’s within the power of Congress to put a halt to what he calls an industry for pregnant non-Americans crossing the border just to give birth.
“They do it for the sole purpose of having a citizen of the United States,” Grassley says. “They can go back to their country after the baby’s born, but they can come back into this country anytime they want to under Family Reunification. I think that ought to be stopped.” Grassley says we’re a country based on the rule of law, and our immigration laws need to be followed.
