The Supreme Court may have temporarily settled the debate over birthright citizenship, but Government Accountability Institute Vice President of Research Eric Eggers says the real fight is only beginning.
During a recent appearance, Eggers argued that the Court’s 5-4 decision upholding birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment puts new urgency on closing what he calls the “birth tourism loophole” — a practice GAI contends has been exploited for years by the Chinese Communist Party.
“The major concern that we’ve had, and that we’ve articulated at the Government Accountability Institute, is that the birthright citizenship law… is being exploited, specifically through the practice of birth tourism,” Eggers said.
Drawing on GAI’s research and the findings in Peter Schweizer’s book The Invisible Coup, Eggers said hundreds of thousands of children have been born in the United States to Chinese nationals who later returned to China. By 2030, he said, as many as one million could reach voting age while retaining full U.S. citizenship.
“You’ve got potentially what we’re calling a Manchurian generation: people who have loyalties to China but have full citizenship privileges, including the right to vote in this country,” Eggers said. “We think that actively undermines American sovereignty.”
With the constitutional question now largely settled by the Supreme Court, Eggers said lawmakers should instead focus on legislation targeting birth tourism itself.
“We’ve heard now Senator Eric Schmitt and… Chip Roy talk about the need for congressional and legislative action to amend the birth tourism loophole specifically, since birthright citizenship was codified and upheld today by the Supreme Court,” he said.
Eggers also argued that birth tourism is magnified by existing immigration law through chain migration, allowing parents of U.S.-born children to eventually obtain legal status themselves.
“It’s not just the people that are born here that become citizens by virtue of birthright citizenship, but through visa laws and the practice known as chain migration, their parents are able to eventually become citizens as well,” he said.
The GAI executive contrasted what he described as differing enforcement approaches between administrations, saying the Obama and Biden administrations instructed border officials not to turn away visibly pregnant women, while the Trump administration has encouraged Customs and Border Protection officers to deny entry to travelers suspected of coming to the United States solely to give birth.
Eggers also pointed to the Northern Mariana Islands as a strategic vulnerability, arguing that the U.S. territory has become a gateway for birth tourism because children born there receive U.S. citizenship.
“It’s near Guam,” Eggers said. “This is a strategic territory that will keep us safe and sovereign from threats from the Asian Pacific… How ironic is it that now… this is the portal, this is the loophole that Chinese elites actively exploit.”
Eggers’ appearance comes as congressional Republicans increasingly shift their focus from challenging the Constitution’s birthright citizenship protections to pursuing legislation aimed at restricting birth tourism and tightening immigration enforcement.
Watch the clip above.
