A day after the US Supreme Court upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that federal prosecutors and law enforcement will focus on combating so-called "birth tourism" — the practice of tourists, temporary visitors, and undocumented immigrants traveling to the US to give birth.
Blanche Outlines Enforcement Priorities
"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 in Washington on Wednesday.
"What we have to do as Department of Justice is make sure our agents, our [Homeland Security Investigations] agents that we work with, and the FBI are focused on stopping that," he added.
Fraud Division Directs Prosecutors
Shortly after the court's last ruling of its current term, Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Division Colin McDonald issued an office-wide memo directing Justice Department staff to bring fraud charges in alleged cases of birth tourism. "The Department of Justice will zealously protect the sanctity of United States citizenship by investigating and prosecuting those who fraudulently exploit our immigration system," McDonald wrote.
Limited Evidence of Problem
During oral arguments in the Trump v. Barbara case in April, government lawyer D. John Sauer conceded that "no one knows for sure" how significant a problem birth tourism actually is. The Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration thinktank, estimates between 20,000 and 26,000 births annually by women on tourist visas — less than 1% of all babies born in the US each year.
Despite this, the practice has been central to the Trump administration's argument against birthright citizenship. Many Republicans and allies of the president have repeated concerns with limited evidence that birth tourism is a sizable problem.
Republican Leaders Echo Concerns
"I do think that this has been grossly abused in recent years," House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday. "You just come on to the soil and have your child, and then they're able to avail themselves of the welfare state and everything else."
Trump's executive order sought to redefine the 14th Amendment, claiming children born to non-citizen parents who are unlawfully in the country or have temporary legal status are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the US and thus ineligible for birthright citizenship. However, a 6-3 Supreme Court majority was unconvinced, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that the administration provided "scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view."
Vance Weighs In
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance criticized the ruling, particularly Justice Amy Coney Barrett's role in upholding the constitutional right. "Well, look, do I think she made a mistake in the ruling? I do," Vance said. "I don't know how anybody can say that if a person who is an illegal alien, or a person for example who's pregnant and comes to the United States on a vacation, they have a baby and all of a sudden their entire family gets the benefits of American citizenship … I don't think that's what the framers of the 14th amendment had in mind."
Legislative Path Ahead
Trump is now pushing lawmakers to create new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to parents without permanent legal status. Any such bill would need to overcome the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate, a hurdle that has frequently proven insurmountable on divisive bills during his second term.
