The Justice Department has announced a crackdown on "birth tourism," a practice where individuals travel to the United States to give birth and obtain U.S. citizenship for their children. This initiative follows a Supreme Court ruling that struck down an executive order by President Trump aimed at restricting birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants and visitors.
Assistant Attorney General for Fraud Enforcement Colin McDonald directed federal prosecutors to "zealously protect the sanctity of United States citizenship by investigating and prosecuting those who fraudulently exploit our immigration system." McDonald stated that existing criminal laws already prohibit fraudulent conduct associated with birth tourism, such as providing false information on visa applications regarding the purpose or duration of travel to the U.S.
The department highlighted several past prosecutions as examples of birth tourism schemes. In 2024, Michael Wei Yueh Liu and Jing Dong, a husband-and-wife team, were sentenced to 41 months in prison for operating a business called "USA Happy Baby." Their company allegedly charged clients tens of thousands of dollars and assisted them in fraudulently obtaining U.S. visas to facilitate childbirth in the country.
Another case mentioned involved Ibrahim Aksakal, who was convicted in 2022 of healthcare and wire fraud conspiracy charges, receiving a 27-month sentence. Aksakal reportedly advertised a birth tourism scheme on Turkish-language social media and provided instructions on how to conceal pregnancies.
In 2020, Chao “Edwin” Chen was sentenced to 37 months in prison for operating a large-scale birth tourism scheme called "You Win USA." McDonald noted that Chen boasted of having 100 employees in the U.S. and China who helped over 500 customers travel to the U.S. to give birth, with charges as high as $80,000.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described birth tourism as a "booming industry" and asserted that it is a violation of U.S. laws if a person's intent in traveling to the country is to have a child who will be a U.S. citizen. "We're focused on stopping that, and that's what we're going to do," Blanche said.
The U.S. government does not currently track the number of births attributed to birth tourists. However, estimates from think tanks suggest the annual number of such births. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that approximately 26,000 babies born in the U.S. annually could be attributed to birth tourism. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates this figure to be around 33,000 births annually to women on tourist visas, with hundreds of thousands more born to mothers who are undocumented or present on temporary visas.