'American Citizenship Is A Privilege': Matt Gaetz Introduces Law To Put An End To 'Anchor Babies' Policy For Illegal Immigrants

On Tuesday, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is pushing forth an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that will remove the birthright citizenship that is awarded to the children of illegal immigrants in America. If the amendment is added, citizenship will only be given to babies whose parents are American citizens or legal immigrants. 

The Florida congressman took to his Twitter account to share the news, linking a Breitbart article that first reported on the topic.

“Today I'm introducing the ‘End Birthright Citizenship Fraud Act.’ American citizenship is a privilege – not an automatic right to be co-opted by illegal aliens. This is an important step in preserving the sanctity of American citizenship,” Gaetz tweeted on Tuesday.

Gaetz also issued a follow-up tweet to his earlier tweet with a clip of him talking about the amendment and the importance of getting it added to the INA. He explained how in 2021, 400,000 “anchor babies” were born in the United States, a number of births exceeding American-born in 49 of the 50 states. 

He also noted how these children create an “indefinite sanctuary” for the parent of the “anchor baby,” something that he called an “erroneous interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.” He also found a problem with that interpretation, managing to make its way into the INA and become the national law. 

The Florida representative said that the intent of the amendment to the INA is simply to make the Fourteenth Amendment go back to its intended purpose and not the stretched purpose it sees today. Considering that the Supreme Court has only so far ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment only applies to children of lawful American citizens, the legal precedents back up Gaetz's interpretation of the law. 

Gaetz then spoke on how the power to determine what makes an American citizen and what doesn’t lies within the jurisdiction of Congress, citing the exact part of the Constitution that grants that privilege to them. 

He finishes the clip by informing people how dire the situation is and how America is currently letting foreigners take advantage of a broken system to gain undeserved citizenship in the country. Gaetz dismissed the idea of a constitutional amendment, saying that they only need to “amend existing law” to change the law to how it should be. 

Gaetz also released a statement on the House website, writing, “Birthright citizenship has been grossly and blatantly misapplied for decades, recently becoming a loophole for illegal aliens to fraudulently abuse our immigration system. My legislation recognizes that American citizenship is a privilege –– not an automatic right to be co-opted by illegal aliens.”

“This is an important step in preserving the sanctity of American citizenship and ensures that citizenship is not treated as a loophole to be exploited but rather a privilege to be earned when legally migrating to our country,” he concludes. 

The timing was intentionally notable as well, as the day that Gaetz announced his amendment is only one day before Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, someone who has largely contributed to the border crisis, is set to be questioned by the House Judiciary Committee. 

The issue is one not commonly covered by the media when discussing the immense border crisis but that doesn’t diminish its importance. If America allows anyone to hop over the border and give birth to an American citizen it will become infinitely more confused whenever it’s time to deport the illegal out of the country.

The amendment from Gaetz will make the law function the way it was always intended to and help to quicken getting rid of illegal immigrants whenever a president is elected who actually intends to do anything about the ongoing border crisis.