Trump moves to curb ‘birth tourism’
The practice of traveling to the United States to give birth-commonly known as “birth tourism”-is now facing stricter scrutiny under the administration of Donald Trump.
According to an internal email from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a new initiative titled the “Birth Tourism Initiative” has been launched.
Under this program, investigators across the country have been instructed to identify organized networks that help pregnant women enter the US by providing false or misleading information in visa applications.
Many of these women travel with the aim of securing automatic citizenship for their newborns.
The Trump administration is using this issue to push for changes to the existing policy on birthright citizenship.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said such practices place additional burdens on taxpayers and pose potential national security risks.
She also noted that most countries do not grant automatic citizenship based solely on birthplace.
However, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security clarified that giving birth in the United States is not illegal in itself. Legal action will only be taken in cases involving visa fraud or deception.
A policy introduced during Trump’s first term in 2020 already restricted the use of tourist visas for the sole purpose of obtaining citizenship for a child, warning that such cases could lead to fraud charges.
The overall scale of birth tourism remains unclear. According to an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies, around 20,000 to 25,000 women traveled to the US for this purpose between 2016 and 2017-a relatively small number compared to the approximately 3.6 million births recorded in the country in 2025.
Despite this, Republican leaders have raised the issue while advocating for limits on birthright citizenship.
Under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, nearly all children born in the United States are granted citizenship-a long-standing legal principle.
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order stating that children born in the US would not receive citizenship if neither parent is a US citizen or permanent resident.
This order has been challenged in court, with several federal judges temporarily blocking it. The matter is currently under review by the Supreme Court of the United States.
The administration argues that the current birthright citizenship system encourages birth tourism and allows the creation of a generation with limited ties to the United States.
The initiative is being led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which will focus on dismantling networks involved in fraud, financial crimes, and the misuse of the immigration system.
Previously, in 2019, several individuals in California were charged for operating so-called “birth houses” that facilitated foreign women traveling to the US to give birth-marking one of the first major legal crackdowns on birth tourism.
Overall, while birthright citizenship remains in place, the Trump administration is taking a tougher stance against fraudulent networks built around the practice.
