“Birth tourism” is the name for the alleged fraud against foreign nationals who travel to the United States to give birth to U.S. citizens.
Supreme Court rejects President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order
The Supreme Court has lifted restrictions on birthright citizenship, the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy.
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has directed prosecutors to investigate potential “birth tourism” schemes after the Supreme Court overturned President Donald Trump’s attempt to limit the citizenship rights of children born to tourists.
Colin MacDonald, the assistant attorney general in charge of fraud enforcement, said in a memo that people who enter the country under “false pretenses” to give birth or secure citizenship for their children could face criminal charges under laws that prohibit visa fraud, money laundering, identity theft, wire fraud and other crimes.
“U.S. criminal law already prohibits the practices inherent in many of these so-called ‘birth tourism’ schemes,” McDonald said. “For example, many such schemes begin with false visa applications that lie about the purpose or duration of the trip to the United States.”
The move is in part a response to the court’s decision, which cost the Trump administration one of its top priorities.
Trump signed an executive order restricting citizenship on the first day of his second term and became the first sitting president to appear before the justices before the Supreme Court this spring.
After Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the following opinion, President Trump asked Congress to adopt his restrictions into law.th Amendments would make this possible. President Trump said the bill, if passed, would once again avoid the high hurdles required to amend the Constitution.
But Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a 5-4 majority opinion that the amendment would provide citizenship to everyone born in this country.
The number of criminal cases related to suspected birth tourism is relatively small, and the number of children born to short-term visitors is also relatively small.
McDonald gave three examples to illustrate the gravity of the crime.
- In 2024, husband and wife team Michael Wei Yue Liu and Jin Dong were convicted and each sentenced to 41 months in prison. They were accused of running a business called “USA Happy Baby” that charged Chinese customers tens of thousands of dollars to help them give birth in the United States.
- In 2022, Ibrahim Aksakar was convicted of conspiracy to commit health insurance and wire fraud and sentenced to 27 months in prison. Aksakar was accused of promoting birth tourism schemes on his Turkish-language social media pages. Aksakal was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution and forfeit nearly $400,000.
- In 2020, Chao “Edwin” Chen was convicted and sentenced to 37 months in prison for leading a 100-person team in China and the United States to run a business called “You Win USA.” Prosecutors said the business served more than 500 customers, each of whom was awarded between $40,000 and $80,000 in damages.
“These examples make it clear that maternity travel programs are abusing our nation’s immigration system and are in violation of our criminal laws,” MacDonald said.
The number of babies born to travelers in the United States is highly debated because the government does not track the numbers. Researchers’ estimates range from a high of 39,000 to a low of 2,000 per year.
But a group of 140 university professors said in written arguments before the Supreme Court that birth tourism represents a “tiny proportion of children” given the 3.6 million births each year in the United States.
