Published September 24, 2026 at 4:00 PM ET · Updated September 24, 2026 at 6:07 PM ET
Sen. Tim Scott targets 'birth tourism': 'Citizenship is not for sale'
2 independent outlets are covering this story, first reported here by Daily Signal. Verification: Corroborated (how we verify). Every headline links to the original reporting.
Senator Tim Scott is pushing to shut down the birth tourism pipeline, declaring that citizenship is not for sale. His effort targets the practice of foreign nationals traveling to the United States to give birth.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 6 d ago, when Daily Signal reported it. Coverage has since grown to 2 independent outlets. The most recent report came 6 d ago from WND.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
United States v. Wong Kim Ark held a child born on US soil to noncitizen parents domiciled here is a citizen at birth, and Trump v. Barbara extended that to children of parents lawfully but only temporarily present. Birth tourism is that class, so its children are citizens by constitutional command; the pending proposals to amend the statute would force that five-vote question anew.
United States v. Wong Kim Ark 169 U.S. 649 (1898)
Vote: 6-2 (Justice McKenna took no part) · Opinion: Justice Horace Gray
A child born in the United States to parents of Chinese descent who, at the time of his birth, were subjects of the Emperor of China but had a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, were carrying on business here, and were not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity of the Chinese government, becomes at birth a citizen of the United States under the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Trump v. Barbara 609 U.S. ___ (2026) (slip opinion; U.S. Reports page not yet assigned)
Vote: 6-3 on invalidity of EO 14160; 5-4 on the Fourteenth Amendment ground · Opinion: Chief Justice John Roberts
Children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully present or lawfully but temporarily present are born 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Citizenship Clause. Executive Order 14160 is invalid. Roberts's opinion treated 'jurisdiction' as satisfied by amenability to U.S. law, reaffirmed Wong Kim Ark as declaratory of the common-law rule inherited from Calvin's Case, and grounded the Clause in the repudiation of Dred Scott.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
