Top Republicans break with Trump, say Congress can’t end birthright citizenship

WASHINGTON, DC: After President Donald expressed his plan to seek the solution of the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship judgement through Congress, top GOP figures broke with him, saying that the constitution deals with citizenship, not Congress.

Top Republican leaders, one after another, suggested that Trump seek a constitutional amendment to restrict the provision of birthright citizenship rather than asking Congress to take action in this regard.

DeSantis, Lee, others break with Trump on Birthright Citizenship plan

After the court ruled that the Constitution guarantees citizenship for nearly all children born on US soil, even those born to parents in the country unlawfully, Trump said he would tackle the issue through Congress.

But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a Harvard Law School graduate, argued in a statement on social media that the court’s decision was not procedural but rather “a substantive decision that says the 14th Amendment requires citizenship for those born to, among others, birth tourists or those unlawfully present in the country.”

“Will need either a constitutional amendment or a future court to overrule this,” he added. “Anyway you slice it, the decision is a major defeat.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who once served as a clerk for Justice Samuel Alito, who dissented from the ruling, also concluded that Congress will have to respond.

“We’re going to need a constitutional amendment,” he wrote 

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt, who served as an alderman and later as the state’s attorney general, wrote a lengthy X post condemning the Supreme Court’s ruling as “wrong, dangerous, and disastrous for American sovereignty and the American people,” as he called on Congress to intervene to “do what the Constitution commands in moments of national crisis.”

Trump asks Congress to act against citizenship ruling

Calling the ruling “too bad for our Country,” Trump urged Congress to begin work immediately on legislation that would end automatic birthright citizenship, insisting lawmakers, not the courts, now hold the key to delivering one of his administration’s signature immigration priorities.

“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!”

President Donald Trump challenged birthright citizenship on January 20, 2025, by signing Executive Order 14160 on his first day back in office.

The citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which was adopted in 1868, says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”