Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images
A Miami doctor who runs a business called “Have My Baby in Miami” repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment last week when Congress questioned his involvement in a scheme to help foreign nationals give birth in the United States for the purpose of obtaining American citizenship for their children.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) questioned Dr. Wladimir Lorentz, the founder and chief medical officer of Miami Medical Concierge Services, which does business as “Have My Baby in Miami,” at a House Oversight Committee hearing on birth tourism. Lorentz replied that a truthful answer could incriminate him.
Gill then displayed the company’s website, which advertised maternity services for international patients and claimed more than 2,000 international deliveries. One line on Have My Baby in Miami’s public website stated, “Now, the dream of having a child in the United States is closer to reality than you ever imagined.” It offered a step-by-step guide for parents traveling to Miami for childbirth, as well as help with housing and legal consultations.
Gill asked why the company modified or removed the site after the committee began investigating in May. He also asked whether Lorentz’s business had helped members of the Chinese Communist Party obtain U.S. citizenship for their children or facilitated childbirth for members of narco-terrorist organizations, including Tren de Aragua and MS-13. Lorentz invoked the Fifth Amendment each time.
“Birth tourism” is the practice of exploiting American citizenship by treating it as a commodity that can be bought and sold. A family hires a company, like Lorentz’s, to arrange medical appointments, temporary living arrangements, international insurance, and other paperwork. The mother gives birth here. Having obtained citizenship for her child, she then returns home to raise her child abroad.
In May, the House Oversight Committee requested the company’s marketing materials, service agreements, visa-related documents, and other guidance for clients applying at U.S. embassies or arriving at the border.
This is not the first instance of potential birth-tourism related crimes. In 2024, a California jury convicted Michael Wei Yueh Liu and Jing Dong of operating a birth-tourism scheme that charged Chinese clients tens of thousands of dollars to give birth in the United States and secure birthright citizenship for their children.
The pair were convicted of conspiracy and international money laundering. Prosecutors said they coached clients to hide their pregnancies and their plans to give birth in the United States from visa officials.
A foreign national may technically give birth in the United States, but the State Department can deny a visitor visa to an applicant traveling principally to give birth here so her child receives U.S. citizenship. An applicant who hides that purpose to obtain a visa may face charges of fraud or material misrepresentation.
Birth tourism is a massive national-security threat. The children born through these arrangements often grow up overseas, with little connection to the United States. Yet they can enter the United States without first obtaining a visa, work in most jobs, receive public benefits, and, as citizens, qualify to seek a security clearance.
The hypothetical scenarios are alarming. A Chinese Communist Party member could give birth in the United States, raise that baby in China, and then the child could return to the United States to vote in American elections or even run for office.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Center for Immigration Studies research director Steven Camarota also warned that a child of a birth tourist may later sponsor his parents for green cards once he reaches adulthood. He told lawmakers that the practice gives families in China, Russia, and other countries an “escape valve” into the United States while creating risks Americans have every reason to take seriously.
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) asked which countries appear to make the most use of birth tourism. Camarota said the available evidence, including criminal prosecutions, points most often to China and Russia, with many cases also tied to Turkey and Brazil.
Rep. Brian Jack (R-GA) warned that the United States will face an even more difficult screening problem before the 2028 Olympics, when tourist-visa applications are likely to rise. He asked how consular officers can tell legitimate visitors from birth tourists.
Camarota told the committee that the current visa process makes it difficult to identify birth tourists before they arrive and harder to prosecute them later. He urged the State Department and border officials to ask applicants directly whether they intend to give birth in the United States. A lie would create a clear record of deception. The State Department already directs consular officers to deny visitor visas when they have reason to believe an applicant’s principal purpose is birth tourism.
President Trump tried to close this loophole on his first day back in office. His 2025 executive order would have denied automatic citizenship to some children born here to parents in the country illegally or only temporarily, including tourists.
The Supreme Court struck down that order in June, holding that children born in the United States to unlawfully or temporarily present parents are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment. Trump responded in August with a narrower order aimed at birth-tourism schemes, including fraud and commercial transactions for citizenship.
Birth tourism is not an inevitable side effect of immigration policy, and President Trump was right to target it. Congress cannot undo the Supreme Court’s decision with one hearing. But it can get the answers Lorentz refused to give and enforce the visa rules already on the books.
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