The Justice Department has announced an increased effort to combat “birth tourism,” where pregnant women travel to the United States under false pretenses to secure citizenship for their children. This move follows a Supreme Court ruling that invalidated former President Trump’s executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for children born in the US to illegal immigrants or temporary visitors.
Colin McDonald, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general overseeing fraud enforcement, instructed federal prosecutors to rigorously pursue cases involving fraudulent visa applications tied to birth tourism practices. He emphasized the department’s responsibility to uphold the integrity of US citizenship by cracking down on those exploiting immigration laws to gain citizenship benefits unlawfully.
McDonald detailed past prosecutions highlighting how these schemes typically operate. One notable case involved a Chinese couple convicted of running a birth tourism company called “USA Happy Baby,” which assisted clients with fraudulent visa applications and charged tens of thousands of dollars. Another case centered on a New York-based operator who promoted birth tourism on Turkish social media, teaching women to conceal pregnancies to evade detection. A third example referenced a businessman who boasted of employing hundreds to facilitate birth tourism, charging clients up to $80,000 and serving more than 500 customers.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described birth tourism as a rapidly growing industry, underscoring the urgency of addressing these fraud schemes. Despite these efforts, the US government does not have official data on the number of babies born to birth tourists each year. Independent estimates vary, with some think tanks suggesting that tens of thousands of births annually may be linked to birth tourism practices.