The Justice Department said it will pursue visa fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and other charges against foreign nationals accused of entering the United States under false pretenses to secure citizenship for their children.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Department of Justice is directing federal prosecutors to prioritize birth tourism investigations after the Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday that the department will focus on foreign nationals and organized networks accused of abusing tourist visas and other immigration processes to give birth in the United States and secure automatic citizenship for children.
The directive came one day after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship in a 5-4 ruling. The administration said the court’s decision does not prevent federal prosecutors from using existing criminal laws to pursue birth tourism schemes involving fraud.
Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald issued a department-wide memo Tuesday instructing every U.S. Attorney’s office to coordinate with the Department of Homeland Security on birth tourism cases.
The memo said prosecutors should consider charges including visa fraud, money laundering, identity theft and wire fraud when evidence shows foreign nationals entered the country under false pretenses to give birth and obtain U.S. citizenship for their children.
“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.
The memo said many birth tourism cases begin with false statements on visa applications about the purpose and duration of a trip to the United States. While such conduct has long been illegal, the new directive tells prosecutors to use the full range of available criminal statutes when supported by the evidence.
The crackdown follows the DHS “Birth Tourism Initiative” launched in April and comes as the Trump administration continues to expand immigration enforcement after the Supreme Court preserved birthright citizenship.
Blanche said Thursday that the ruling makes birth tourism enforcement more urgent because foreign nationals may continue seeking to exploit automatic citizenship rules.
“From a Department of Justice standpoint, it’s obviously focusing our prosecutors and our law enforcement partners on birthing tourism, and it’s a booming industry, and it will continue. It will continue given the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday,” Blanche said.
Blanche said the court’s decision limits what the administration can do through executive action, but he said DHS and other federal agencies still have tools to address the issue through the visa and application process.
“There’s other things that DHS 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 their tourist visa—but just to have a baby that can then be a U.S. citizen,” Blanche said.
The administration argues that birth tourism often involves foreign nationals misrepresenting their travel plans to obtain entry into the United States.
“From our standpoint, it’s focusing on what is a problem. Everybody should agree that it’s a violation of our laws if your intent in coming here, if you’re pregnant, is to have a child become a United States citizen because of our current laws,” Blanche said.
The Justice Department said it will work with federal law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute individuals and networks involved in birth tourism operations.
“What we have to do as the Department of Justice is make sure our agents, our HSI agents that we work with and the FBI, are focused on stopping that, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Blanche said.
Birth tourism has drawn scrutiny from administration officials and investigators who say organized networks have helped foreign nationals travel to the United States, conceal pregnancies, misuse hospitals and exploit citizenship laws. Prior reporting has described maternity hotels and birth tourism operations in Southern California, including networks accused of coaching pregnant women on how to mislead officials at ports of entry.
Investigative reports have also examined China’s birth tourism industry, including packages costing tens of thousands of dollars and concerns that some children born through such arrangements could later be tied to foreign influence operations.
The Justice Department’s new directive signals that, despite the Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s executive order, the administration intends to use fraud and immigration statutes to target what it describes as organized efforts to exploit birthright citizenship.
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