Trump administration plans crackdown on ‘birth tourism’ after Supreme Court ruling
by Stephen Dinan · The Washington TimesThe Supreme Court may have settled the legal issues on birthright citizenship, but the Trump administration says the ruling leaves room to find ways to prevent pregnant women — particularly “birth tourists” — from reaching U.S. soil to take advantage of the ruling.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the government can block women seeking to travel to the U.S. late in their pregnancies. He called it a matter of the baby’s health and a national security concern.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department will take a more aggressive approach to the “birth tourism” companies that coach pregnant women on how to make the journey, including by teaching strategies to fool consular and border officials.
“Everybody should agree that it’s a violation of our laws if your intent in coming here if you’re pregnant is to have a child that’s a U.S. citizen,” Mr. Blanche told reporters Wednesday.
He said birth tourism is a “booming industry.”
The justices, in a 5-4 ruling, said the 14th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees full citizenship to nearly every child born on American soil, including those born to illegal immigrants or temporary foreign visitors.
SEE ALSO: Supreme Court shuts down Trump’s attempt to change birthright citizenship
The decision overturned an executive order by President Trump that sought to bar recognition of citizenship for those children.
While immigrant rights groups hailed the ruling as a victory, Mr. Mullin called the decision “dead wrong.”
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“This is truly a national security risk,” he said on Fox News.
That echoed Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who dissented from the decision. He envisioned women from an adversarial power coming to the U.S. to give birth and then returning home to raise those U.S. citizen children in an environment deeply hostile to American values.
Experts say this dynamic is particularly prevalent with clients from China, where women travel to the U.S. to give birth before returning to raise those citizen children under the communist regime.
The ruling this week applies to children of legal foreign visitors and illegal immigrants.
The illegal immigrants are a far larger issue, according to the most recent baseline data available from the Pew Research Center, which calculated that about 245,000 babies born in 2023 were to illegal immigrant mothers and fathers who also lacked full legal status.
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About 15,000 babies were born to mothers who were in the U.S. legally but temporarily and whose fathers lacked permanent status.
Some of those are likely long-term visitors, such as foreign students or skilled guest workers. The number of birth tourists — coming specifically to claim American citizenship for their children — is unknown.
Yet it does happen.
Justice Department attorneys told the Supreme Court that hundreds of firms offer birth tourism services.
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One case the Justice Department prosecuted involved what authorities described as a “maternity house” in Rancho Cucamonga, California. USA Happy Baby Inc. rented apartments to pregnant Chinese women who would give birth and then return to China a month or two later.
The operators coached the women to evade scrutiny in visa applications by claiming they were tourists planning to stay only a few weeks, rather than the months they intended to stay.
They were also coached to hide their pregnancies from border officers by wearing loose clothing and to understate how far along they were if the pregnancy was noticed. They were told to select customs lines manned by older White officers, who were thought to give the women less scrutiny.
Happy Baby charged up to $100,000 for VIP clients.
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When addressing broader illegal immigration, the administration is focusing on frontline enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security has reduced the number of arrivals at the border and has moved to enforce “mass deportations” of those already in the country.
Mr. Mullin said Wednesday that the department is deporting 3,200 people a day.
Mr. Trump has asked Congress to explore ways to work around the ruling. One possibility would be to have lawmakers pass legislation redefining who falls “under the jurisdiction” of the U.S. to exclude illegal immigrants and temporary visitors.
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Stephen Dinan
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