Iowa attorney general leads 17 other GOP AGs in supporting Trump's end to birthright citizenship
Bird claimed that people visiting the United States on a tourist visa, who then give birth to their children in the U.S., are not part of what the authors intended in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird on Monday led a coalition of 18 GOP attorneys general in filing an amicus brief that defends President Donald Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship.
A group of 18 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit in hopes of blocking the order last month, after Trump signed an executive order shortly after returning to the Oval Office. The order directed the federal government to stop issuing passports, citizenship certificates, and other documents to children born in the U.S. whose parents are in the country illegally.
Bird claimed that people visiting the United States on a tourist visa, who then give birth to their children in the U.S., are not part of what the authors intended in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
"If someone comes on a tourist visa to have an anchor baby, they are not under that original meaning of the United States Constitution," Bird told Fox News. "Oftentimes, when this has happened, it's the taxpayers that are paying for the health care through Medicaid or through hospitals.
"[They are] paying for care for someone to have a child, or the state child health insurance system as well," she continued. "Each state has a system that helps kids without insurance, and so the taxpayers are on the hook here for all the costs."
Bird's brief was signed by attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
The filing argues that the order complies with the "original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment," and also "reduces harm to the states," because the current interpretation of the amendment gives pregnant women a powerful incentive to come to the U.S.
"The lure of American citizenship motivates pregnant women to travel to America to give birth," the brief reads. "Some women, desperate to give birth in the United States, cross the border the day they deliver their baby."
The brief comes the same day that 18 House Republicans, led by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, filed their own amicus briefs in Washington, D.C. and Massachusetts, in support of Trump's order.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.