by WorldTribune Staff, July 1, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
When the U.S. Senate returns from its 19-day recess on July 13, Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno says he plans to introduce a bill to revoke birthright citizenship.
The legislation Moreno plans on pushing is a revival and “carbon copy” of a 1993 proposal from none other than the late Democrat Sen. Harry Reid.
Sen. Bernie Moreno / Video Image
“What it’s going to do is highlight two things — the Democrats of today are nothing like the Democrats of 1993 and, if they choose to reject a bill sponsored by their majority leader that they named an airport in Las Vegas after, then I think my Republican colleagues have no choice. We have to recognize that these Democrats want to systematically destroy this country.”
Moreno told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that Reid’s bill had 10 points, “one of which was clarifying that birthright citizenship does not apply to foreign born parents. You have to be an American citizen on American soil for that to apply.”
A press release issued by the Reid’s office at the time he proposed the bill suggested it “clarifies that a person born in the United States to an alien mother who is not a lawful resident is not a U.S. citizen.”
This clarification would have eliminated the “incentive for pregnant alien women to enter the United States illegally, often at risk to mother and child, for the purpose of acquiring citizenship for the child and accompanying federal financial benefits,” Reid said at the time.
Reid’s bill ultimately died in committee.
Moreno indicated that his bill will be a carbon copy of Reid’s. On Tuesday, he urged that Republicans work to “eliminate the filibuster” and “get this thing done.”
“[Justice Kavanaugh] said that what we have to do is clarify what citizenship means. We can do that through an act of Congress,” he said.
The Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling on Tuesday ruled that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment guarantees anyone born on U.S. soil and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a citizen at birth.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice in a memo sent out on Tuesday directed federal prosecutors across the country to step up investigations and prosecutions of so-called birth tourism schemes.
Deputy Attorney General Colin McDonald ordered federal prosecutors to team up with Homeland Security and make these cases a priority. Officials say foreign nationals are lying on visa applications or misleading border agents about why they are traveling to the U.S., all so they can give birth here and automatically secure American citizenship for their children.
But prosecutors are not just looking at visa fraud anymore. McDonald has called on them to go after birth tourism networks for bigger charges if the evidence is there, including money laundering, identity theft, and wire or health care fraud.
In 2024, Michael Wei Yueh Liu and Jing Dong each received a 41-month prison sentence for running a California-based company called “USA Happy Baby Inc.” which helped Chinese clients secure fake visas, hide their pregnancies from border agents, and set up housing in the U.S.
The directive also points to a 2022 case in New York. Ibrahim Aksakal got 27 months behind bars for running a birth tourism ring that targeted Turkish speakers. Prosecutors say his operation gave pregnant women a script on how to bypass immigration officials. On top of the prison time, Aksakal had to hand over nearly $400,000 and pay more than a million dollars in restitution.
The memo also points back to a 2020 case involving a man named Chao “Edwin” Chen. He got about three years in prison for running a massive birth tourism business called “You Win USA.”
Memorandum for DOJ Employees on Prosecution of Fraudulent Birth Tourism Schemes from Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/hoilA5o2TE
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) June 30, 2026
