The Trump administration is shifting its strategy to target birth tourism following the Supreme Court's decision to uphold birthright citizenship. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that federal prosecutors and law enforcement will focus on combating cases where tourists and temporary visitors travel to the United States specifically to give birth.
"There's other things that the Department of Homeland Security can do, and the federal government can do in the visa process and the application process, to try to minimize or limit the opportunity of folks coming here not to visit, and not to do what they're saying they're doing on the tourist visa, but just to have a baby that can then be a US citizen," Blanche told reporters.
The Department of Justice's assistant attorney general for the national fraud division issued an office-wide memo directing staff to bring fraud charges in alleged birth tourism cases. "The Department of Justice will zealously protect the sanctity of United States citizenship by investigating and prosecuting those who fraudulently exploit our immigration system," Colin McDonald wrote.
The administration had initially sought to use an executive order to redefine the Fourteenth Amendment's birthright citizenship protections, arguing that children born to non-citizen parents with temporary legal status or unlawful presence would not qualify for automatic citizenship. However, the Supreme Court rejected this approach in a 6-3 decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that the administration provided "scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view."
The focus on birth tourism represents a narrower legal strategy after the broader birthright citizenship challenge failed. During oral arguments in the case, the government's own lawyer acknowledged that "no one knows for sure" how significant birth tourism actually is. The Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration organization, estimated there are between 20,000 to 26,000 births by women on tourist visas annually, representing less than 1 percent of all babies born in the United States each year.
Despite the relatively small numbers, Republican lawmakers have emphasized their concerns about the practice. House Speaker Mike Johnson stated that birth tourism has been "grossly abused in recent years," claiming that people come to the country to give birth so their children can access welfare benefits.
Vice President JD Vance also weighed in on the ruling, criticizing the Supreme Court's decision. "Do I think she made a mistake in the ruling? I do," Vance said, referring to Justice Amy Coney Barrett's vote to uphold birthright citizenship protections.
The administration is now pushing Congress to pass new legislation creating exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to parents without permanent legal status. However, any such legislation would need to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold, which has proved difficult for divisive bills during the second Trump term.