House Republican lawmakers are looking to ban illegal immigrants from ever obtaining citizenship, saying the drastic measure is the best way to deter unlawful entrance into the US.
On Thursday, Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) introduced the “No Citizenship for Alien Invaders Act” which amends the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to state that “No alien who enters the United States unlawfully shall be eligible for naturalization.”
“Under the Biden administration, we saw more than 10 million encounters at our borders, a crisis exacerbated by reckless catch-and-release policies that allowed criminals who broke our laws to remain in the United States,” Mills told The Post.
“President Trump has made it clear that anyone that tries to unlawfully undermine, exploit, or bypass our immigration system is a criminal.”
Mills, 44, who is married to a refugee from Iraq who became a US citizen, argued that the privilege of citizenship should be “reserved for those who respect our laws.”
The measure is co-sponsored by Reps. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Andy Harris (R-Md.), the last of whom chairs the House Freedom Caucus.
“America is a nation of laws, and if we allow those laws to be subverted by illegal aliens who have no constitutional right to be here in the first place, then we will cease to be a nation,” Brecheen told The Post.
During fiscal year 2024, there were an estimated 2.9 million encounters nationwide, according to data from US Customs and Border Control.
Encounters with illegal immigrants have dropped precipitously under President Trump, with 28,654 recorded during this past February, compared to 256,071 during February of 2024, per US Customs and Border Patrol Control data.
About 818,500 people became US citizens last year, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The No Citizenship for Alien Invaders Act is intended to dovetail with Trump’s push to enforce immigration laws and secure US borders.
Republicans in Congress are developing sweeping legislation to fund Trump’s agenda package that includes sweeping border security measures.
GOP leaders are hoping to get that bill to Trump’s desk by Memorial Day, but in the interim, the House has been mulling smaller measures to beef up border security and immigration law, such as the Laken Riley Act, which the president signed into law in January.
Should the No Citizenship for Alien Invaders Act pass the House, the bill would likely face a Democratic filibuster in the Senate, which requires 60 votes to overcome.
