Senator Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican, is pressing the Trump administration to revoke citizenship documentation for children born to foreign diplomats in the United States, arguing that such grants violate the original intent of the 14th Amendment. In a letter sent Thursday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Schmitt called for an investigation into what he described as illegal grants of citizenship to diplomats’ children, urging the agencies to implement safeguards to prevent future occurrences and to revoke any improperly issued documents.
The move follows the Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling in Trump v. Barbara, which blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present. The court held that the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause guarantees citizenship to those children, a decision Schmitt and other conservatives have sharply criticized. Schmitt’s letter focuses on a narrower category: children of accredited foreign diplomats, who have long been considered outside the amendment’s jurisdiction because their parents are not fully subject to U.S. law.
Federal policy, as outlined by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, states that children born to foreign diplomatic officers do not acquire U.S. citizenship at birth, though they may register for lawful permanent residence. Schmitt argued that despite this rule, diplomats’ children have still been able to obtain birth certificates, Social Security numbers, and other documents that can be used to claim citizenship. He said agencies lack adequate systems to flag when a newborn’s parents are foreign diplomats before citizenship-related documents are issued, potentially allowing thousands of such children to receive citizenship records improperly.
“Foreign diplomats’ children using improperly procured citizenship documentation to illegally claim citizenship degrades the meaning of American citizenship, undermines our sovereignty, and threatens our national security,” Schmitt wrote in the letter. He urged the State Department and DHS to investigate the scope of the issue, prevent future improper grants, identify individuals who received documents, and revoke any unlawfully obtained documentation. The letter cited public reporting and legal scholarship to support the claim that the problem may be widespread.
Schmitt’s letter comes two days after he introduced the American Citizenship Act, legislation that would limit birthright citizenship to children of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. The bill aims to reopen the fight over birthright citizenship through Congress, following the Supreme Court’s rejection of Trump’s executive order. “American citizenship is sacred,” Schmitt said in a statement Tuesday. “But the Supreme Court’s erroneous interpretation of the 14th Amendment last month degraded the meaning of that citizenship by extending it to children born to illegal or temporary aliens — including ‘birth tourists’ — who come to our country in violation of our laws.”
The Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara affirmed that children born in the U.S. to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment. The ruling blocked Trump’s executive order, which had sought to deny citizenship to those children. Schmitt, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, has made birthright citizenship a central focus since the decision. He previously announced plans for a constitutional amendment and led an amicus brief backing Trump’s executive order.
Civil liberties groups have strongly opposed efforts to restrict birthright citizenship. The American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged Trump’s executive order, argued that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born in the U.S. and that no president can rewrite that constitutional protection. Schmitt, however, said the court’s ruling strengthened the case for congressional action. “I introduced the American Citizenship Act to restore that original meaning, challenge the Supreme Court’s decision, protect the sacred bond of American citizenship, and honor the legacy of our nation’s patriots who fought to protect what it means to be an American,” he said.
The American Citizenship Act would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to define “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States as being born to a parent who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. This would exclude children of illegal aliens, temporary visitors, and foreign diplomats from automatic citizenship. The bill faces an uphill battle in Congress, where Democrats have largely defended birthright citizenship as a constitutional guarantee. Schmitt’s letter to Rubio and Mullin seeks immediate administrative action on diplomats’ children, bypassing the legislative process for that specific category.
Schmitt’s efforts reflect a broader conservative push to reinterpret the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which was ratified in 1868 to grant citizenship to formerly enslaved people. The clause states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The Supreme Court has long interpreted this to include nearly all children born on U.S. soil, with the exception of children of foreign diplomats and enemy forces. Schmitt’s letter and bill seek to narrow that interpretation further, arguing that the original meaning of the amendment was more restrictive.
