The Supreme Court seems poised to strike down Trump's executive order outlawing birthright citizenship, and that view is backed up by the 14th Amendment. But that doesn't mean there's nothing Congress can do to clap back against the massive industry providing birther tourism to foreign moms and outlaw maternity tourism businesses entirely.
Companies that provide maternity services for foreign moms to have their babies on US soil, ensuring that those babies are American citizens, have been around for decades. In 2013, CBS reported on a family that "traveled from China to Los Angeles so their baby could be born in America and claim U.S. citizenship."
"An association of Chinese birth-tour operators estimated that 10,000 Chinese birth tourists came to the US in 2012," reported the Wall Street Journal. By 2016, there were 472 American citizen babies born to Chinese women on the Northern Mariana Islands alone—that was up from just 8 in 2009.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee reported in 2022 that birther tourism companies were offering visa consulting services, housing and healthcare for foreign moms who want to give birth on US soil. Estimates suggest that 1.5 MILLION jus soli babies are being raised in China to Chinese parents, babies that have no familiarity or allegiance to the United States.
These children have access to all benefits and rights of American citizenship, including being eligible to run for president. That cannot be a permitted practice.
All children born on US soil may be American citizens, as that's what's laid out in the US Constitution, but that does not mean that Congress must allow companies to trade in US citizenship. There are serious national security concerns when it comes to foreign-raised American children.
These 1.5 million Chinese-raised American citizens could come to the US while under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party. Because of their citizenship status, they will not be scrutinized as heavily for government work or classified research programs as they would be did they not have that status.
And because they will have lived their lives in China, raised with the social norms and customs of Chinese and not American culture, they will have no loyalty to their nation of origin, despite their birth certificate. From the Northern Mariana Islands to California to Miami, companies like GlobalBaby8, China Mifubaby Group, Have My Baby in Miami, AmeriMama, You Win USA Vacation Services, Ada International, Miami Mama, and others have been permitted to operate in the sale of US citizenship.
China and Russia are adversaries of the United States. Why are we giving them access to our citizenship? Congress must put a stop to these kinds of businesses. American citizenship cannot be a commodity for sale.
"There are more than 500 firms in China that facilitate people coming from the Chinese Communist Party to give birth here in the United States. Obama enabled this through loopholes dating back to 2009, and what that could mean is 1 million new voters by 2030. Imagine that, Communist Party voters," Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News.
And she's right. We don't know how many companies globally offer the service of selling US citizenship to foreign moms for their foreign babies.
We don't know if foreign governments are involved in the procurement of US citizens who are raised as loyal residents of foreign nations. We do know that birther tourism takes advantages of American goodwill and gives our enemies the chance to destroy us from within.
The United States is the most powerful nation in the world and over a million people apply every year to become citizens, with most of those gaining it. At any given time, another 9 million green card holders are eligible for citizenship, all of whom came to the country legally and went through proper channels.
That generosity is unprecedented in the western world and must not be allowed to be abused by birther tourism. The industry of selling US citizenship to foreign mothers must be outlawed entirely.
