Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted on X that birthright citizenship is being exploited. She said she has introduced a constitutional amendment to end it for children of parents in the country illegally, according to the post. Mace introduced H.J. Res. 190 in June, proposing a constitutional amendment that would limit automatic birthright citizenship. The resolution was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Online users largely backed the proposal while questioning whether the Senate or the courts would act after a recent Supreme Court ruling on the issue.
The proposal follows the Supreme Court’s June ruling in Trump v. Barbara, which held that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment.
In the caption, Mace wrote that “an illegal alien crosses our border, gives birth thirty minutes later, and walks away with an automatic American citizen,” calling the system “broken” and “exploited on a massive scale.” The post is text plus a still graphic, and it does not show a birth, a hospital, or a border crossing.
According to the post, “every year, 250,000 to 320,000 babies are born on U.S. soil to illegal immigrant mothers,” each qualifying for federal benefits and becoming “a potential anchor,” at what she called “$150.6 billion a year.” She said “the 14th Amendment was written after the Civil War for freed slaves” and “was never intended to reward people for breaking our immigration laws.”
Mace added that she had “introduced a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens,” writing that “American citizenship means something, and it should never be handed out as a byproduct of breaking the law.” Those birth and cost figures have not been independently confirmed.
Online Reactions to Mace’s Birthright Citizenship Post
Some users backed the proposal. One wrote that “‘Birthright Citizenship’ cheapens U.S. Citizenship. It must be eradicated.” Another said, “I’d vote for this 1,000,000 times over.”
A third argued a child “born to me is a citizen of my country” and that the reverse would not apply abroad.
Others focused on Congress and the courts. One commenter said, “Not like our corrupt Senate will do anything about it,” adding that Senate leadership “hasn’t even looked at it along with 70 other bills.”
Another wrote that “a constitutional amendment won’t pass at this time, since every Democrat will vote against it,” and pointed to “the recent interpretation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution by the Supreme Court.”
A further reply said “SCOTUS NEEDS TO VACATE THAT DECISION,” while another claimed, “the Supreme Court betrayed the intention of the legislature which crafted the language.”
Some responses were skeptical of Mace herself. One user said to “stop trying to lead by executive order” and to “put the amendment in front of Congress and the states and let them vote on it.”
Another wrote, “Speaking of things ended……your political career is over.” A separate comment argued Republicans were “achieving NOTHING” and should “fix the system” rather than talk.
The birthright citizenship debate remains unresolved, and Mace’s amendment push adds another public marker to an argument now running through Congress, the courts, and online comment threads.
