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The United States Department of Justice has described schemes exploiting birthright citizenship as a national security threat and vowed to prosecute those behind them.
In a post shared on X on Tuesday, the department said organised birth tourism operations abuse US immigration laws and, in many cases, violate criminal statutes.
“Actors seeking to exploit loopholes to obtain automatic citizenship for their children pose a national security threat and will be brought to justice,” it said.
It also argued that individuals and networks are exploiting loopholes in the immigration system to obtain automatic citizenship for children born in the United States.
Birth tourism is the practice of foreigners travelling to the US on temporary visas primarily to give birth so that their children acquire citizenship by birth under the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
While giving birth in the US is not, by itself, a crime, federal authorities have long pursued cases involving organisers who allegedly commit offences such as visa fraud, immigration fraud, money laundering, tax violations or healthcare fraud in facilitating such travel.
The Justice Department has previously secured convictions against operators of birth tourism businesses.
In one of the first major cases, prosecutors in California charged multiple operators accused of coaching pregnant women to conceal the purpose of their travel from US consular officials and border authorities while charging tens of thousands of dollars for their services.
US prosecutors in California recently obtained convictions against operators of a Chinese birth tourism business, while another case in New York resulted in prison sentences over a scheme involving healthcare and visa fraud linked to pregnant foreign nationals entering the US.
Birth tourism schemes exploit our immigration laws and often violate our criminal laws. The Department of Justice will prioritize the prosecutions of birth tourism schemes across the country. Actors seeking to exploit loopholes to obtain automatic citizenship for their children…
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) June 30, 2026
