Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is introducing a plan to end the nation’s anchor baby policy that rewards the United States-born children of illegal aliens with birthright American citizenship, Breitbart News can exclusively reveal.

Annually, nearly 400,000 “anchor babies,” the term used to describe the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, are delivered across all 50 states.

Anchor babies are rewarded with birthright citizenship despite their parents having no legitimate ties to the U.S., many having only recently arrived. Years later, when the child is considered an adult, they can sponsor their parents and foreign relatives for green cards — anchoring their family in the country for generations.

On Tuesday, Breitbart News learned Gaetz is filing the “End Birthright Citizenship Fraud Act of 2023” which amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to clarify birthright citizenship is solely for the U.S.-born children of American citizens and legal immigrants.

“Birthright citizenship has been grossly and blatantly misapplied for decades, recently becoming a loophole for illegal aliens to fraudulently abuse our immigration system,” Gaetz said in a statement:

My legislation recognizes that American citizenship is a privilege –– not an automatic right to be co-opted by illegal aliens.

This is an important step in preserving the sanctity of American citizenship and ensures that citizenship is not treated as a loophole to be exploited but rather a privilege to be earned when legally migrating to our country.

To date, the U.S. Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled that the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens must be granted birthright citizenship, and a number of legal scholars dispute the idea.

Many leading conservative scholars argue the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment does not provide mandatory birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens or noncitizens, because these children are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction as that language was understood when the 14th Amendment was ratified.

The U.S. and Canada are among only a handful of developed nations, mostly in North and South America, that have a birthright citizenship policy for anyone, regardless of immigration status, born within its physical borders.

Nations like Australia, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, and Spain, among others, reserve birthright citizenship for children born to at least one citizen parent.

Today there are about 5.8 million anchor babies in the U.S. — a population six times that of Jacksonville, Florida. Anchor babies and their illegal alien parents cost American taxpayers more than $150 billion annually.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.