One day after the Supreme Court delivered a major rebuke to President Donald Trump by upholding birthright citizenship, a House Republican has introduced legislation aimed at working around that decision by targeting pregnant foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) unveiled the measure, which he has named the “Anchors Away Act,” on or around June 30, 2026. The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar the admission of pregnant foreign nationals if immigration officials believe they are seeking entry for the purpose of giving birth in the United States so that their child would acquire American citizenship – a practice critics of the policy call “birthright tourism.”
A Direct Response to the Supreme Court
Ogles introduced the proposal in direct response to the high court’s June 30 ruling on birthright citizenship. In that decision, the justices declined to endorse the administration’s attempt to end the constitutional guarantee through executive action, a move the court found ran afoul of the 14th Amendment. The amendment’s Citizenship Clause states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens – language that has been read for more than a century to grant citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil.
Unable to overturn that guarantee outright, Ogles and some allies have shifted toward a different strategy: rather than changing who becomes a citizen at birth, the Anchors Away Act would attempt to limit who is allowed into the country in the first place. According to the text of the bill, it would also permit officials to refuse entry to pregnant women who are not married to U.S. citizens and who are seeking admission as nonimmigrants.
A Proposal, Not a Law
It is important to be precise about where this legislation stands. The Anchors Away Act is a newly introduced bill – a proposal – and not enacted law. For it to take effect, it would need to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by the president, a lengthy process that most introduced bills never complete.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has publicly called for action on birthright citizenship following the court’s decision, and he indicated that GOP leadership is “looking at” Ogles’s bill. That language stops well short of a commitment to bring the measure to a vote, and it remains unclear whether the proposal has the support needed to advance.
Civil-Rights and Constitutional Concerns
Critics have raised serious civil-rights and constitutional objections to the approach. By singling out pregnant women for exclusion based on assumptions about their intentions, opponents argue, the bill would invite discriminatory enforcement and could face legal challenges of its own. Immigration advocates note that officials would effectively be asked to guess at a traveler’s motives, a standard they warn is ripe for abuse.
Supporters frame the measure as a matter of border security and a legitimate response to concerns about the integrity of the immigration system. Opponents see it as an end-run around a constitutional right that the Supreme Court had just reaffirmed – an attempt to accomplish through the visa process what the administration could not accomplish by executive order.
For now, the Anchors Away Act adds to a growing list of Republican proposals reacting to the court’s ruling. Whether it gains traction in Congress, or remains a messaging bill introduced in the heat of a political moment, will become clearer in the weeks ahead.