A Republican congressman has introduced legislation that would end automatic United States citizenship for many people born in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and other US territories from 2027, drawing strong opposition from a territorial rights advocacy group.
The End Birthright Citizenship for Territories Act, introduced by Virginia Republican rep Morgan Griffith, would amend federal law so that people born in Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands and the CNMIon or after 1 January 2027, would no longer automatically receive US citizenship under current statutory provisions.
The bill argues Congress has the authority to change citizenship laws applying to the territories.
In a statement announcing the bill, Griffith said the recent US Supreme Court decision in Trump v Barbara “leaves the door open for Congressional action on citizenship in the American territories”.
“Just like Congress possesses the power to grant the territories Constitutional rights in statute, we have the power to take them away in statute,” Griffith said.
The proposal has drawn criticism from Right to Democracy, an advocacy organisation focused on US territories.
“This dangerous and unconstitutional legislation highlights the problem with the Insular Cases and the idea that Congress has the power to simply turn constitutional rights on and off at will in U.S. territories,” Neil Weare, the organisation’s co-director, said.
“This is a concern we’ve been warning about for a long time, and here it is in black and white.”
Weare said the bill’s wording was broader than what he described as Griffith’s stated aim of addressing so-called “birth tourism”.
“The proposed amendments to federal statute are sweeping, and could mean that anyone born in a U.S. territory starting in 2027 would no longer be recognized as a US citizen, indeed, may not be a citizen of anywhere,” Weare said.
“While Rep Griffith says his legislative intent is to focus on addressing so-called ‘birth tourism’, the actual text of the legislative amendments does not contain any limiting language and could deny citizenship to anyone born in a territory moving forward.”
Another Right to Democracy co-director Adi Martinez Roman said the issue extended beyond politics.
“The question of federal power over citizenship in US territories is not a partisan or ideological issue – it is one of fundamental rights in a democracy,” Martinez Roman said.
Martinez Roman argued the proposal could also conflict with the Northern Mariana Islands’ Covenant with the United States.
“The legislation is also especially troubling because it seeks to unilaterally amend the citizenship provisions negotiated in the Northern Mariana Islands’ Covenant, which under Public Law 94-241 require ‘mutual consent,’ to change,” Martinez Roman said.
“This is just the kind of federal action the Covenant was negotiated to prevent.”
According to Right to Democracy, the proposal follows comments by US vice president JD Vance after the Supreme Court’s Trump v Barbara decision, in which he reportedly said limiting birthright citizenship in the territories by executive action was “a great idea” and that “we’re certainly looking at that.”
The bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives but has not become law. It would need approval from both chambers of Congress and be signed by the president before taking effect.
