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FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican has a plan to challenge the Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship, and he’s taking a decades-old page from Democrats to do it.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, will soon circulate legislation that was once pushed by the late, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that, among several things, would drastically reduce the scope of birthright citizenship.
The bill, first obtained by Fox News Digital, is a mirror image of Reid’s initial offering from 1993. It’s a comprehensive immigration reform package that cuts legal immigration substantially, caps refugee admissions at 50,000 annually and speeds up deportations with limited court review, among several provisions.
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Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, is taking a page from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s, D-N.Y., late mentor to tackle the birthright citizenship issue. (Al Drago/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Moreno painted his objective as twofold: try to tackle the Supreme Court’s decision last month with legislation and show how Democrats have strayed from their immigration policy over the last three decades.
“What it’s going to do is highlight two things,” Moreno said earlier this month. “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,” he continued.
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On the birthright citizenship matter, the Moreno-Reid product would tackle the main argument made by the Court, which interpreted the meaning of “subject to the jurisdiction of” within the 14th Amendment to effectively mean all children born in the U.S. are automatically granted citizenship.
The unorthodox bill would modify that language to “subject to the jurisdiction of” a foreign country. Under the proposal, illegal immigrants, most temporary visa holders and others who are temporarily in the country and their children would not qualify for automatic citizenship.
That’s an interpretation that Democrats of today have rejected. Notably, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who was mentored by Reid, cheered the Supreme Court’s decision.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks as Sen. Charles Schumer listens during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Reuters)
“No matter how much President Trump tries to steal citizenship from people that the Constitution has said have earned it and reverse the grand American tradition of welcoming newcomers to our nation, the Supreme Court confirmed today that those born in America are American,” Schumer said last month.
Reid disagreed.
In a press release from 1993, Reid made many of the same arguments that Republicans have made for the last few years on issues at the southern border and abuse of birthright citizenship.
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Reid said that “our borders have overflowed with illegal immigrants, placing tremendous burdens” on several programs, and that “our federal wallet is stretched to the limit by illegal aliens getting welfare, food stamps, medical care and other benefits, often without paying any taxes.”
“We are a country founded upon fairness and justice. An individual in real threat of torture or long-term incarceration because of his or her political beliefs can still seek asylum,” Reid said at the time. “But this bill closes the door to those who want to abuse America’s inherent generosity and legal system.”
