Rep. Rich McCormick filed House legislation Thursday that would bar foreign nationals who travel to the United States solely to give birth, a direct response to the Supreme Court's decision blocking President Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship.

The Georgia Republican's bill is a companion to Sen. Marsha Blackburn's Ban Birth Tourism Act of 2026 in the Senate. Both measures would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to make any foreign national who enters the country for the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child through birth inadmissible, and to classify birth tourism as a deportable offense, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported exclusively.

The legislation arrives after the Supreme Court struck down Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship outright. The Court held that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on anyone "born... in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." That ruling left the executive branch without a unilateral path to restrict the practice, and handed the question squarely to Congress.

McCormick's press release, obtained by the DCNF, framed the bill as a fraud-prevention measure aimed at a specific category of immigration abuse rather than a broad challenge to the 14th Amendment itself. His office estimated that roughly 33,000 children are born each year in the United States to birth tourists. McCormick alleged that many of those travelers are coached by businesses on how to mislead immigration officials about the true purpose of their trip.

McCormick calls birth tourism 'fraud' that has 'gone on long enough'

In a statement released with the bill, McCormick did not hold back about the practice his legislation targets. He cast American citizenship as something earned, not purchased.

McCormick said in the press release:

"American citizenship is one of the greatest privileges in the world. It should not be bought as a product, exploited through a loophole, or handed out to foreign nationals who fly here solely to give birth and return home. Every year, roughly 33,000 children are born in the United States to birth tourists, many of whom are coached by businesses on how to deceive immigration officials. That is not a legal gray area; it is fraud, and it has gone on long enough."

The bill's mechanism is narrow compared to the sweeping executive order the Supreme Court rejected. Rather than attempting to redefine who qualifies for birthright citizenship under the Constitution, the McCormick-Blackburn approach targets the act of traveling to the United States with the primary intent of securing citizenship for a child through birth on American soil. It treats the travel itself, not the birth, as the inadmissible conduct.

That distinction matters. The Supreme Court's ruling left no room for the executive branch to override the 14th Amendment by decree. But Congress retains broad authority over immigration admissibility standards, and the bill's sponsors are betting that authority extends to defining birth-tourism travel as a disqualifying purpose for entry. Speaker Johnson has already signaled interest in moving birthright citizenship legislation through the House after the Court's ruling shut down the executive-order route.

Blackburn's Senate version sets the table for a bicameral push

Sen. Blackburn, the Tennessee Republican, introduced the Senate version of the Ban Birth Tourism Act of 2026 before McCormick filed his House companion. The DCNF report did not specify whether Blackburn's bill has attracted co-sponsors or received a committee referral, and no vote timeline was disclosed for either chamber.

Blackburn has been one of the more vocal Republicans on immigration enforcement this Congress. She recently called Democrats' unanimous vote against ICE funding "disrespectful" after the Secure America Act cleared Congress, a fight that underscored how sharply the two parties have split on enforcement-related spending.

McCormick urged his House colleagues to back the measure. In his press release, he stated:

"I am proud to join Senator Blackburn in introducing the House companion to the Ban Birth Tourism Act of 2026. I urge my colleagues to stand with us in protecting the integrity of American citizenship and restoring confidence in our immigration system."

Whether the bill can clear the House depends in part on Republican unity, which has been a persistent challenge for leadership this term. House conservatives recently ended a weeks-long floor blockade only after Speaker Johnson agreed to pair a voter ID bill with spending legislation, a reminder that even popular GOP priorities can stall when the conference fractures over procedure.

33,000 births a year and a coaching industry McCormick wants shut down

The 33,000 figure cited by McCormick's office deserves context. The press release attributed the number to birth tourism broadly but did not specify whether it came from a government study, an academic estimate, or an internal calculation. No independent verification of the figure appeared in the reporting.

What McCormick did allege, and what gives the bill its enforcement edge, is the existence of businesses that actively coach foreign nationals on how to deceive U.S. immigration officials about the purpose of their travel. If those allegations hold up, they point to an organized commercial industry built around exploiting a gap in American immigration law, not just individual families making a choice.

The bill does not appear to challenge the citizenship of children already born on U.S. soil. Its focus is prospective: barring future admissions and creating deportation consequences for those who enter the country under false pretenses to secure a birth on American territory. That makes it a fraud-and-admissibility play, not a constitutional amendment fight.

Several open questions remain. No bill number for McCormick's legislation appeared in the reporting. The specific sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act that would be amended were not identified. And the broader political landscape, including whether Johnson sees a birth tourism vote as a tool to hold his fractured conference together, will shape whether the measure reaches the floor at all.

The Supreme Court told the White House it cannot rewrite the 14th Amendment by executive order. McCormick and Blackburn are now asking Congress to do what the courts would not let the president do alone, just through a narrower door. Whether that door is wide enough to survive legal challenge is a question for another day. For now, the bill puts every member of Congress on record: close the loophole, or own the consequences of leaving it open.