CONGRESSWOMAN PLASKETT STATEMENT ON H.R. 9724 AND THE CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS OF RESIDENTS OF THE U.S. THE TERRITORIES

For Immediate Release Contact: Tionee Scotland

July 20, 2026 202-808-6129

PRESS RELEASE

CONGRESSWOMAN PLASKETT STATEMENT ON H.R. 9724 AND THE CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS OF RESIDENTS OF THE U.S. THE TERRITORIES

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Stacey E. Plaskett (VI) issued the following statement regarding H.R. 9724, legislation introduced by Congressman Morgan Griffith (VA-9), which contains language to strip automatic U.S. citizenship from children born in the U.S. territories beginning in 2027:

"Protecting the citizenship and constitutional rights of the people of the United States territories is among the most important work of my office. This commitment led me to recruit two former Solicitors General - colleagues of mine from the Department of Justice (DOJ) - to argue the citizenship cases on behalf of American Samoans before the Supreme Court (Fitisemanu v. United States). Subsequently, I led hearings in Congress examining the Insular Cases and their continuing harm to the people of the United States territories. That same commitment compelled me to co-lead a bipartisan, bicameral letter - signed by 43 Members of Congress - that pushed the DOJ, under the Biden-Harris Administration, to formally repudiate the racist foundations of those cases, a standard that remains DOJ policy today. It has led me to author resolutions in the House of Representatives affirming the rights of the people of the U.S. territories. This year, I led an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court's recent birthright citizenship case, Trump v. Barbara, which was quoted by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. I know this history, and I know what is at stake.

"While Congressman Griffith states H.R. 9724 would solely remove "birth tourism" in actuality, the bill would strip automatic U.S. citizenship from children born in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands beginning in 2027. Its sweeping language could leave children born in the U.S. territories citizens of nowhere. The bill relies on the Insular Cases for its authority, a body of law built on openly racist reasoning which the DOJ previously renounced.

"This bill is divisive, it is racist in its foundation, and it is corrosive of the principles of American law. It fits a broader pattern in Congressman Griffith's record of measures that diminish Black and brown people.

"To be clear-this bill has not attracted a single cosponsor. It has no discernible path to consideration, particularly given the calendar of inaction the Majority has laid out, but we do not dismiss it. We do note that the Vice President has said this is an idea the Administration is 'looking at,' and we take that seriously.

"My office is working with our Republican and Democratic territorial colleagues, and with members on the Judiciary and Natural Resources Committees that hold jurisdiction, to monitor this bill closely. The nearly four million Americans who call the U.S. territories home are entitled to the full dignity of their citizenship, and I will continue to defend it."

###