(The Center Square) – Tennessee Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn says other countries have found another way to obtain birthright U.S. citizenship – an industry known as “birth tourism.”
For a fee, pregnant women can visit the U.S. at the time they are close to their due date, according to a news release from Blackburn’s office. If the babies are born in the U.S., they are citizens under the Constitution’s citizenship clause that says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
A 2020 study by the Center for Immigration Studies, quoted by Blackburn, said 33,000 women on tourist visas give birth each year. When the child is 21, he or she can sponsor their parents migration to the U.S.
Blackburn introduced the Ban Birth Tourism Act that would add a clause to the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“Foreign nationals have been exploiting our nation’s immigration laws for far too long, taking advantage of the system to come to the United States for the sole purpose of giving birth to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children,” Blackburn said. “The Ban Birth Tourism Act would prevent foreign nationals, including those from adversaries like Communist China and Russia, from buying American citizenship for their children. As President Trump works to end birthright citizenship, we need to get this bill to his desk.”
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week on President Donald Trump’s executive order that would ban birthright citizenship. A decision is expected in June or July.
