FIRST ON FOX: In the midst of a blitz of Republicans shaking their fists at the Supreme Court, one Senate Republican is warning of national security consequences for the court’s bombshell birthright citizenship decision.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., worries that the court’s 6-3 decision leaves America vulnerable to threats, particularly from China. In an interview with Fox News Digital, he explained a multistep path that lawmakers and the administration could take to tackle the issue.

«I want to get this done because I really believe that the future of our country is on the line,» Schmitt said. «We can’t have Chinese generals sending their wives to this country to give birth and going back for 18 years and coming back and being citizens. It’s insane.»

ALITO WARNS SUPREME COURT MADE ‘SERIOUS MISTAKE’ THAT COULD HAVE NATIONAL SECURITY CONSEQUENCES

While some lawmakers want a constitutional amendment and others are pushing legislation, Schmitt has a foot in both camps. He contended that in all, there is «a short-term, medium-term and long-term solution.»

«The short-term is executive action, the medium-term is our legislative action that we could take, and then the long-term solution is the constitutional amendment,» Schmitt said. «I think we should pursue all of those.»

The clearest shot to counter the court’s decision would be through a constitutional amendment, but legislation may be the more realistic route, he said. He’s following the breadcrumb trail left by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to do it, too.

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«Congress could — consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment — amend or otherwise enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country,» Kavanaugh wrote in the court’s decision. «But Congress has not yet done so.»

Schmitt’s legislation would clarify the language of the 14th Amendment. The court interpreted the words «subject to the jurisdiction thereof» within the text to effectively mean all children born in the U.S. are automatically granted citizenship.

His plan is to modify the language to include «not subject to a foreign power,» which he contended would return the 14th Amendment to its original intent and prevent foreign adversaries from quietly scoring citizenship.

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DF-17 Dongfeng medium-range ballistic missiles equipped with a DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle, shown during a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Republic. (Zoya Rusinova/TASS via Getty Images)

«That would get back to what the meaning was supposed to be, that the court got wrong, which would give us the opportunity, I think, for potentially the decision to be overturned, because Congress has clarified it,» Schmitt said.

But, like nearly every legislative push in the Senate, the 60-vote filibuster threshold is a barrier.

That means that Schmitt, or any Republican pushing a bill dealing with birthright citizenship, will need Democratic support to pass.

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Schmitt pointed to the late former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bill from 1993, the Immigration Stabilization Act, which among other things sought to tweak the 14th Amendment to prevent children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. from gaining citizenship, as a marker that at one point, Democrats supported the same thing he and Republicans are pushing for.

«It wasn’t that long ago that Harry Reid actually had legislation to deal with this issue,» he said. «And so, you know, are the Democrats going to be a party that learned their lesson from the Biden years where they were open borders and they let 15 to 20 million people here illegally?»

«They don’t believe in sovereignty that we can tell people who can come and who can go,» Schmitt continued. «Is that who they are, or are they gonna make a shift more towards where the American people are at?»

Pope Leo XIV’s first major showdown with a breakaway Catholic movement ended Thursday with the Vatican declaring the Society of St. Pius X in schism and excommunicating bishops who defied the pontiff by ordaining new bishops without his approval.

The Vatican acted one day after the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) consecrated four new bishops at its seminary in Écône, Switzerland, despite a personal appeal from Leo urging the group to abandon what the Catholic Church called a «schismatic act.»

In a decree released Thursday, the Holy See excommunicated the four newly consecrated bishops as well as the two bishops who took part in the ceremony, declaring the ordinations a schism, or an intentional break from the Catholic Church.

The decision comes after decades of efforts by successive popes to reconcile with the traditionalist movement, which rejects many of the reforms adopted during the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, including allowing Mass to be celebrated in local languages instead of Latin.

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Only the pope has the authority to approve the consecration of Catholic bishops, a practice meant to preserve the Church’s unity and its line of succession from the apostles.

The sanctions also reverse concessions the Vatican had granted the SSPX in recent years as it tried to bring the group back into full communion with Rome. According to the decree, the group can no longer validly administer the sacraments of confession and marriage, and the Vatican urged Catholics attending SSPX Masses to separate themselves from the movement.

Pope Leo XIV waves during the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The action comes just days after Leo made a rare personal appeal to the group’s leader, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, urging him to cancel the consecrations.

«I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!» the pope wrote in a letter to Pagliarani on Monday, warning the planned ordinations would deepen the decades-old division between Rome and the SSPX.

The dispute is the first major test of Leo’s pontificate. Since becoming pope, the American-born pontiff has emphasized healing divisions within the Catholic Church, including reaching out to conservatives and traditionalists who felt alienated during Pope Francis’ papacy.

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During Wednesday’s consecration ceremony, Pagliarani insisted the ordinations were carried out not in opposition to the pope but in service to the Church.

«We are accused of not respecting the pope,» Pagliarani said. «But it is precisely because we love the pope as the vicar of Christ, as the head of the church, that we don’t want to see the pope humiliated anymore, on the side of false shepherds representing false religions.»

Pope Leo XIV delivers his message as he celebrates a Mass where he confers the pallium on newly appointed metropolitan archbishops, in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the Society of St. Pius X has long opposed what it considers theological errors introduced by the Second Vatican Council. Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 after consecrating four bishops without the approval of Pope John Paul II in a nearly identical confrontation.

Those excommunications were lifted in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI in an effort to restore dialogue, though the SSPX never returned to full communion with Rome and has remained outside the Church’s formal structure.

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Despite that status, the society has continued to grow, reporting hundreds of priests, seminarians and religious members serving followers in dozens of countries, making it one of the largest traditionalist Catholic movements operating outside the Vatican’s authority.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

El reloj marcaba exactamente las 7:19 de la mañana de este jueves (hora de Costa Rica), cuando el silencio sepulcral que dominaba Playa Grande, en el estado de La Guaira, se rompió con un estallido de júbilo, llanto descontrolado y aplausos.

Tras una agónica espera de siete días, Hernán Gil, un vigilante venezolano de 44 años, volvió a respirar aire puro. Su extracción no fue una maniobra más; fue una hazaña de dimensiones colosales liderada desde el primer minuto por la Cruz Roja Costarricense, cuyo equipo se convirtió en el faro de esperanza que guio a rescatistas de todo el planeta hacia el fondo del abismo.

Hernán permaneció sepultado durante 170 horas bajo los escombros del Centro Comercial Galerías Playa Grande, destruido por los sismos de magnitudes 7,2 y 7,5 que azotaron la costa caribeña el pasado 24 de junio. Contra toda lógica médica, hoy está vivo.

La historia del rescate cambió por completo el pasado 30 de junio. Mientras el desánimo empezaba a rondar la zona de desastre, una brigada de la Cruz Roja de Costa Rica realizaba un rastreo minucioso y milimétrico sobre la peligrosa e inestable montaña de concreto.

Fue en ese momento cuando la agudeza y el entrenamiento de los rescatistas “ticos” marcaron el destino de la operación: divisaron el leve movimiento de una mano a través de una grieta casi invisible y, al acercarse, escucharon una voz debilitada pero firme.

Hernán estaba vivo en el tercer piso subterráneo. Había sobrevivido porque su caseta de seguridad en el sótano resistió el impacto inicial, creando un microespacio vital que lo protegió de las más de 140 toneladas de escombros que colapsaron encima. Al confirmar el hallazgo, los rescatistas costarricenses no lo dudaron e inmediatamente activaron los protocolos de emergencia para solicitar apoyo internacional, conscientes de que la extrema complejidad del terreno requería un esfuerzo humano titánico y multidisciplinario.

A partir de ese instante, la Cruz Roja Costarricense asumió con orgullo y templanza el liderazgo técnico del operativo, coordinando las acciones hombro con hombro junto a los valientes miembros de Protección Civil de Venezuela.

Una hermandad global unida bajo el mando técnico de Costa Rica

El llamado de auxilio de los rescatistas ticos resonó con fuerza en todo el continente. Rápidamente, el campamento base se transformó en un conmovedor ejemplo de unión global. Más de 100 especialistas de brigadas USAR (Búsqueda y Rescate Urbano) procedentes de El Salvador, Estados Unidos, Chile, Portugal, Colombia, México y España se sumaron al plan estratégico trazado por Costa Rica y Venezuela.

Fueron 114 horas de labores ininterrumpidas y desesperantes. La inestabilidad de la estructura obligó a los rescatistas a cavar centímetro a centímetro usando herramientas manuales pesadas y escáneres sónicos. El peligro era constante: las réplicas del sismo hicieron que los primeros túneles de aproximación colapsaran. Sin embargo, el equipo tico mantuvo la calma y la dirección del plan, logrando introducir una sonda vital para suministrarle a Hernán aire comprimido, hidratación y medicamentos que lo mantuvieron estable en la oscuridad.

Afuera, la vigilia de su esposa, Gusbimar González, se alimentaba del coraje de los rescatistas, quienes se negaron a rendirse incluso cuando el cansancio físico amenazaba con vencerlos.

La recompensa a tanto sacrificio llegó finalmente la mañana de este jueves. Las primeras imágenes enviadas desde el corazón de la zona de desastre por Ricardo Arias, miembro del equipo de la Cruz Roja de Costa Rica, plasman un momento de profunda humanidad. En ellas se observa el instante exacto en que los rescatistas costarricenses, con los cascos cubiertos de polvo y los rostros marcados por el cansancio extremo, rompen en llanto y se funden en abrazos eternos con sus hermanos venezolanos y del resto de los países participantes.

“¡Hernán está afuera! Tras 114 horas de esfuerzo ininterrumpido y más de siete días después de los terremotos, Hernán ha sido rescatado y ya se encuentra en una ambulancia”, comunicó con profunda emoción la Cruz Roja Costarricense en sus redes sociales oficiales, desatando una ola de orgullo en Costa Rica y el mundo.

Hernán Gil ya recibe atención médica especializada y se reporta estable. Su rescate quedará para siempre en los anales de la ayuda humanitaria como el día en que la persistencia de un grupo de rescatistas ticos movilizó al mundo para salvar una vida, demostrando que la solidaridad no conoce fronteras cuando se trata de rescatar la esperanza.