TN-7 Candidate Lee Reeves Says Congress Needs to Codify Trump’s Birthright Citizenship EO ‘As Soon as Possible’

Kaitlin Housler

Tennessee State Representative Lee Reeves (R-Franklin), who is seeking the Republican nomination in the race for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, said the time is now for Republicans to codify President Donald Trump’s executive order changing the birthright citizenship system.

On January 20, Trump issued an executive order titled, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” which directed government agencies to only issue citizenship documents, including passports and Social Security numbers, to children born in the U.S. with at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or one parent who is a lawful permanent resident.

Currently, all children born in the U.S. – regardless of their parents’ immigration status – are granted automatic citizenship.

Reeves, on Monday, said the first piece of legislation he plans on introducing if elected to Congress would work to end birthright citizenship for children born to illegal aliens on U.S. soil.

The bill, Reeves said, would require that at least one parent of a child who is born in the U.S. be a U.S. citizen to qualify for automatic citizenship.

On Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Reeves said Republicans must codify Trump’s executive order into law as soon as possible, given that the order can be changed by future presidents.

“As we know, executive orders don’t last forever. We saw that in President Biden’s administration, all the things being reversed and everything going backwards for a while. So we want to codify that into law,” he said.

Reeves also pointed out how the 2026 midterm elections could see Republicans’ majority in the U.S. House and Senate shrink, which is why, he said, if he is elected as Tennessee’s next congressman for the 7th District, he would make such an effort to codify the president’s order.

“I think now’s the time to do this and there’s an opportunity to do it with the right people in this congressional seat,” Reeves said.

“We’ve got, roughly, 11 months to get across the finish line the things that are absolutely needed. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the midterms. I have a good feeling about the midterms just because of the things that President Trump has already passed – that one big, beautiful bill included amongst them – but we just don’t know, so we have to act now. We have to get his agenda across the finish line, and this is one of the things that I think needs to get done,” he added.

In the case that Congress codified the president’s order into law, Reeves said that while he expects the effort to be challenged in court by the likes of the American Civil Liberties Union, he said strongly believes the courts would uphold the president’s order and Congress’ bill.

Reeves, a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, explained how the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says only those “subject to the jurisdiction of” the U.S. – which means under its full legal authority – shall receive automatic citizenship, further emphasizing his confidence in the courts upholding such a change to the system.

“There’s a phrase in the 14th Amendment that’s been misapplied, it says, ‘subject to the jurisdiction of.’ The people that are here, not legally, to two parents that are not citizens or lawful permanent residents are not subject to the jurisdiction the way that it was intended,” Reeves explained.

“I think President Trump has nominated and got through some incredibly intelligent jurists who follow the original intent of the Constitution and really interpret things the right way…I think it’ll have favorable treatment in the courts and we will codify yet another one of the executive orders that President Trump has put into being this year,” he added.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.

 

 

 

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