Senator Blackburn Targets Birth Tourism Industry
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has introduced legislation aimed at dismantling the lucrative birth tourism industry. This practice allows foreign nationals to enter the United States on temporary visas, primarily to guarantee their children receive American citizenship at birth.
While President Donald Trump seeks to abolish birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants, Blackburn’s focus is specifically on curbing birth tourism.
It’s estimated that each year around 33,000 children born in the U.S. obtain citizenship purely because their parents entered the country on temporary visas, often tourist visas.
Years later, these U.S.-born children can sponsor their parents for green cards, creating a pathway to residency for those initial visitors.
The birth tourism trend is notably prevalent among Turkish families in New York City, Chinese families in California, Russian families in Florida, and Middle Eastern families in Illinois.
According to reports, Blackburn’s proposed “Prohibiting the Birth Tourism Act” aims to eliminate this practice entirely. In her statement, she expressed concern that “foreigners have been using our country’s immigration laws for too long” to attain citizenship for their children, thereby undermining the system.
Particularly, her proposed law would modify the Immigration and Nationality Act to declare childbirth as an unacceptable reason for obtaining temporary visas to the U.S.
Blackburn commented, “The Prohibition of Tourism Act would prevent foreigners from buying American citizenship for their children, especially from countries like China and Russia.” She emphasized a need to advance this bill, aligning it with Trump’s objectives to halt birthright citizenship.
In December 2020, the Department of Justice uncovered a significant birth tourism operation in New York City, revealing that over 100 U.S.-born children were granted citizenship under these circumstances. Additionally, in 2019, a similar investigation in California exposed a scheme involving around 8,500 children born to foreign nationals also traveling on tourist visas.
