A national-security gap just opened that the Senate will soon have a chance to help close. In striking down the birthright executive order, the Supreme Court guaranteed U.S. citizenship to the children of illegal entrants and foreign birth tourists alike — even, Justice Thomas warned, the child of “an alien enemy” or “a foreign spy.” The executive branch cannot reverse that, so when H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, reaches the Senate, it should be taken up at once and passed.

Justice Alito’s hypothetical shows the stakes: a child born here to a birth-tourist mother from a hostile nation, raised abroad to hate this country, is still a citizen free to come and go on an American passport. Washington cannot change who receives citizenship overnight, but it can shrink the number of people ever positioned to exploit it. H.R. 2 would end catch-and-release, close the asylum and parole loopholes, criminalize visa overstays, and mandate E-Verify — the enforcement foundation that, paired with tighter visa controls, makes the system far harder to game. The last time this bill passed the House, the Senate let it die; this time it should send H.R. 2 straight to the President’s desk.

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA

Sent to:
Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff