The House Oversight Committee launched a probe into four companies associated with “birth tourism” in the United States. Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) sent letters to maternity companies in Florida, Texas, and California, requesting documents on marketing materials and the number of clients served.
“The benefits of US citizenship are a unique privilege,” the letters read. “However, as foreign expectant mothers traveling for this purpose come predominantly from China and Russia, there are concerns that the birth tourism industry is giving rise to potential national security and election integrity threats posed by adversarial nations that challenge U.S. interests.”
“While it is not inherently illegal for a foreign traveler to give birth in the United States, willfully misrepresenting one’s intentions to enter the country on a temporary visitor visa is a violation of current law and considered visa fraud,” they added. “The birth tourism industry relies on exploiting birthright citizenship as currently interpreted under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
The letters cite data from an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies, which estimated that nearly 26,000 babies are born to women on tourist visas annually.
“Birth tourism should never be big business in the United States. This tactic exploits U.S. immigration law, and those who willfully mispresent their intentions to temporarily come to the U.S. are breaking the law,” Comer said in a statement. “The birth tourism industry is growing, and there are businesses that are flat out marketing it to foreign nationals. Most foreign nationals exploiting our immigration system in this way are from China and Russia, which raises national security concerns. We are calling on several businesses who are aiding foreign nationals to provide information to the Oversight Committee.”
Separately, a study from Pew Research detailed that 320,000 U.S. births in 2023, or about 9% of all babies born that year, came from unauthorized immigrants or mothers with temporary legal status.
