Sen. Bernie Moreno to circulate birthright citizenship and immigration bill modeled on 1993 Harry Reid proposal

Sen. Bernie Moreno plans to circulate a bill that would narrow birthright citizenship and pair the change with immigration reductions, according to a report from Fox News Politics published July 15, 2026. The move is framed by Moreno as a test of whether Democrats will reject a policy approach he says was previously backed by a prominent Democratic figure who advised Senate Democratic leaders.

The July 15 report says the measure tracks, in Moreno’s description, a 1993 proposal attributed to Harry Reid. Reid served as a senior Democratic senator during the early 1990s, when Congress and the federal government were weighing various immigration and citizenship-related policy questions. The report characterizes the Reid proposal as targeting the definition of birthright citizenship and aligning it with steps to limit immigration flows.

Moreno’s stated strategy, as described by Fox News Politics, is to prompt Democrats to take a public position on the bill’s core premise. The report says Moreno will “circulate” the proposal, positioning it as a forcing mechanism within the Senate by encouraging Democratic lawmakers to reject what Moreno portrays as a historically precedent-backed crackdown on birthright citizenship.

If introduced and advanced, the bill would place the Senate in the center of a debate that also implicates federal immigration enforcement priorities and constitutional questions about the scope of citizenship at birth. Changes to birthright citizenship policy can carry major implementation questions for federal agencies, state and local governments, and the documentation systems used to determine eligibility and status for people seeking benefits or legal recognition.

The report does not provide the bill text or specific statutory language Moreno plans to use, nor does it cite an official Senate or Congress record confirming the bill’s exact provisions at the time of publication. It also does not include information on committee assignments, expected timing, or whether the bill is intended to move through a particular legislative vehicle, such as a standalone bill or an amendment package.

Democratic responses to changes to citizenship policy have historically tended to focus on constitutional and humanitarian concerns, as well as on the potential for administrative disruption. On the other side, proponents typically argue that narrowing birthright citizenship would strengthen immigration enforcement and reduce irregular migration incentives. In the present case, Moreno’s stated emphasis is that Democrats should acknowledge that the approach was once backed by a senior Democratic mentor figure.

As of the report’s publication date, the next procedural step would depend on whether Moreno files the measure formally, requests cosponsorship, and places it before the relevant Senate committee for review. Any advancement would then determine whether the proposal survives threshold legal and parliamentary hurdles, including scrutiny of how it would be implemented across federal agencies that handle citizenship determinations and immigration enforcement activities.