House Speaker Mike Johnson said Congress must resume the debate over birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to limit that constitutional right. During an interview on Fox News Sunday, the Louisiana Republican said that legislators are evaluating different alternatives to modify current legislation and restrict automatic citizenship for children of people who are in the United States without immigration authorization or with temporary status.

Johnson assured that his bench will analyze all available options, including the possibility of promoting legislative reform or, if necessary, promoting a constitutional amendment, although he acknowledged that the latter would involve a much longer and more complex process.

The statements come a few days after the Supreme Court ratified the principle of birthright citizenship protected by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, a decision that represented a setback for the immigration strategy promoted by the Trump administration.

Republicans seek a new strategy

The Republican leader argued that the current system has been exploited through so-called “birth tourism,” a practice in which foreign women travel to the United States to give birth with the goal of their children automatically obtaining American citizenship.

According to Johnson, this situation represents a challenge for the rule of law and national security, which is why he insisted that Congress must intervene to modify the rules that regulate birthright citizenship.

After learning of the court ruling, Trump publicly asked legislators to immediately begin work to approve a law that limits this benefit, considering that a constitutional reform would not be necessary to do so.

Among the initiatives already circulating in Congress, a project presented by Representative Brian Babin of Texas stands out, which proposes redefining the scope of the expression “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States” contained in the Fourteenth Amendment. The proposal states that only those who are born to at least one parent who is a US citizen, a legal permanent resident, or a member of the Armed Forces with legal immigration status can acquire automatic citizenship.

The constitutional debate continues

The Supreme Court's decision reaffirmed the legal precedent that recognizes American citizenship for virtually all people born in the country, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. However, some judges pointed out that Congress retains the power to review federal legislation related to citizenship, which has opened a new discussion among Republican legislators about the possible legal limits that could be established without modifying the constitutional text.

The issue has also reactivated the debate on so-called birth tourism. Although there are estimates that estimate tens of thousands of cases per year, specialists and academic organizations maintain that this practice represents a very small fraction of the total births registered annually in the United States.

In addition to the immigration issue, Johnson announced that he will seek to reactivate the so-called SAVE America Act through the budget reconciliation process, a strategy with which he hopes to facilitate its approval in the Senate after the project faced legislative obstacles in recent weeks.

The future of both initiatives will depend on the support they manage to gather among Republicans in Congress and the legal challenges that may arise if new attempts to modify the citizenship rules established by the US Constitution succeed.