America Must End “Birth Tourism” Epidemic

Just before the new year, 59-year-old Michael Wei Yueh of California was sentenced to more than three years behind bars for his role in a scheme to obtain citizenship for the children of affluent Chinese women.

According to court documents, Yueh and two co-conspirators operated “USA Happy Baby Inc.,” a company that promoted the benefits of giving birth to a child in the U.S. rather than in China. Agents of the company in China would recruit pregnant women who would pay anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 to ensure their child had dual U.S. and Chinese citizenship.

From there, USA Happy Baby would coach their clients on how to lie in order to pass U.S. consulate interviews. The women, who were told to wear loose-fitting clothing, would tell U.S. authorities that they planned to stay for a few weeks as tourists. In reality, they would stay for three months at apartments set up by Yueh and his associates. Notably, this fraud operation was set up in California specifically because of its lax customs enforcement.

Yueh’s scheme was a particularly sophisticated example of what’s known as “birth tourism,” or the practice of women from other countries traveling to the United States in the latter stages of pregnancy to take advantage of the country’s recognition of birthright citizenship. It’s a problem that has become more severe in recent years – and which President Donald Trump could be able to address.

While birth tourism to the United States is particularly popular among Chinese women, they are hardly the only ones taking advantage of this apparent loophole in American law. In 2020, the Center for Immigration Studies estimated “that birth tourism results in 33,000 births to women on tourist visas annually.”

As political analyst Merrill Matthews noted in a recent op-ed for The Hill, at least as far back as 2009, “a growing number of well-to-do Mexican mothers have been coming to the U.S. to have their babies, who automatically get American citizenship since they were born on U.S. soil.” Some hospitals reportedly even advertise birth tourism packages to foreign mothers-to-be.

For some mothers, U.S. citizenship for their children is seen as an insurance policy or even a status symbol. In 2018, NBC News noted a spike in wealthy pregnant Russian women traveling to Miami, Florida, to give birth. As one woman told the outlet, “American passport is a big plus for the baby. Why not?”

But while birth tourism indeed makes perfect sense for foreign parents who can afford it, the practice carries some potential risks for American citizens who actually reside in the United States. Most mothers who take advantage of the birth tourism loophole return home with their children – creating tens of thousands of legal American citizens who grow up with no ties or allegiance to the United States.

Some foreign nationals are stretching the loophole even further. According to a report from the Heritage Foundation last July, some Chinese parents are now using “rent-a-womb” schemes to ensure their children are U.S. citizens without either parent ever even setting foot in the United States. As the report notes, “By combining ‘ingredients’—egg and sperm—foreign couples can contract out nearly every step of procreation with little oversight. The resulting children gain and maintain the full rights of American citizenship through a dubious interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment.” This “cross-border surrogacy” is not regulated at the national level in the United States.

Several other Western countries have already taken action to stop birth tourism and other abuses of the birthright citizenship doctrine. In 2005, for instance, Ireland amended its constitution to require that at least one parent be an Irish citizen or legal resident for the child to gain citizenship at birth.

New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, the Dominican Republic, and India have also reversed their birthright citizenship policies. Broadly speaking, these countries now only grant citizenship at birth if at least one parent is a “citizen or permanent resident,” almost none permit citizenship for children if one or both parents are in the country illegally.

Trump already tried to end the practice of birth tourism in 2020 by imposing new visa rules. As the Associated Press reported at the time, “Under the new rules, pregnant applicants will be denied a tourist visa unless they can prove they must come to the U.S. to give birth for medical reasons and they have money to pay for it or have another compelling reason — not just because they want their child to have an American passport.”

However, with Joe Biden taking office in 2021, those rules were not strictly enforced, and birth tourism continued to be big business. With Trump back in office, he is looking to end birthright citizenship altogether, signing an executive order to that effect on day one of his second term.

Unsurprisingly, that order was quickly challenged and blocked by a judge, setting up what looks to be an extended legal battle that will likely end at the Supreme Court. But while whether or not Trump can unilaterally end recognition of birthright citizenship may be in question, he can certainly take action to stop or at least deter birth tourism as one very blatant abuse of America’s immigration and customs system.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.