Politics

GOP Lawmakers Putting ‘Criminal’ Birth Tourism Industry Under Microscope

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Some Republican lawmakers are sounding the alarm over birth tourism amid rising national security and fraud concerns.

The phrase birth tourism refers to the act of foreign nationals traveling to the U.S. to give birth and obtain citizenship for their children. Experts and lawmakers warned the Daily Caller News Foundation that these schemes pose major threats to national security and can impose undue cost burdens on American taxpayers.

“The birth tourism industry engages in fraud and other criminal activity, threatens our national security, and costs U.S. taxpayers,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told the DCNF in a statement. “Our Committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses recently exposed this problem when the CEO of an entity promoting birth tourism repeatedly invoked the Fifth when questioned about his practices.”

“Another witness detailed how foreign nationals engaged in birth tourism exploit our immigration laws and drain taxpayer-funded resources,” Comer continued. “The Oversight Committee, alongside the Trump administration, will continue to fight these illegal practices, hold those responsible accountable, and restore integrity to our immigration system.”

In May, the Oversight Committee announced it was probing several firms for allegedly engaging in birth tourism. The committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses also held a hearing on Sept. 1 which scrutinized “the prevalence of birth tourism schemes” across the nation.

“Being a citizen of the United States of America represents full legal membership in the great American experiment,” Republican Texas Rep. Brandon Gill said during the hearing. “But the concept of birthright citizenship is being exploited by foreign nationals, including those from adversarial nations like the People’s Republic of China and Russia.”

The Migration Policy Institute estimates that 22,000 to 26,000 babies are born annually in the U.S. via birth tourism, but notes that government data suggests that there were just 9,600 births to mothers with foreign addresses as of 2024.

Birth tourism to the U.S. is practiced by individuals from across the world, including citizens of China, Taiwan, Korea, Nigeria, Turkey, Russia, Brazil and Mexico, according to a January 2020 fact sheet from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Some of these individuals misrepresent the purpose of their trip to circumvent scrutiny, CIS reported.

“Birth tourism could result in people raised in foreign countries opposed to America being able to enter America at will, spy on this country and vote in our elections,” Federation for American Immigration Reform deputy general counsel Chris Hajec told the DCNF.

“Birth tourism is likely to decline, because, following the Supreme Court’s decision [on birthright citizenship], greater efforts will be made to prevent it, such as enforcing a policy of not issuing tourist visas to pregnant women, or banning birth tourism hospitals,” Hajec added.

The Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to deny automatic birthright citizenship to U.S. born children with two foreign national parents violated the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause.

Trump subsequently issued an Aug. 6 executive order aiming to eliminate birth tourism, stating that “the immigration laws of the United States establish discrete categories of temporary nonimmigrant visas to allow foreign visitors into the United States for study, exchange, temporary employment, tourism, and other transitory activities that are now exploited by birth tourism operators.”

The State Department announced in August that it is launching a new task force aiming to crack down on birth tourism that will review “the activities of visa holders worldwide to identify instances of birth tourism, take action to revoke visas of those who engage in or facilitate it, and dismantle the networks that profit from this abuse.”

Birth tourism can also place additional strain on healthcare and public services, potentially placing the well-being and safety of citizens and lawful U.S. residents at risk, according to The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein, P.C.

A U.S. embassy in West Africa discovered a “sophisticated” birth tourism network of more than 100 foreign nationals using fabricated documents to obtain visas to acquire U.S. citizenship for their children, per a June press release.

Texas has recently moved to crack down on alleged birth tourism schemes. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order in July directing state agencies to probe birth tourism and “hold every provider that facilitates them accountable.”

In late June, Republican Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles unveiled legislation to stop birth tourism in the U.S., saying in a statement that “foreigners have embedded themselves into our society and are being trained by foreign governments to corrupt our culture.”