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Lucy Quaggin

US lawmakers targeted China and birth tourism on Wednesday for the second time this week during hearings on birthright citizenship, a constitutional right upheld by the Supreme Court in June but still under challenge from the Trump administration.
“The demand for US citizenship for the children of Chinese nationals has led to unscrupulous companies assisting these individuals for profit,” said Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas.
Wednesday’s Judiciary hearing was called to review June’s Supreme Court birthright decision in Trump vs Barbara and explore potential legislative responses. This followed Tuesday’s House Oversight session on birth tourism.
Brandon Gill, a Republican from Texas, said on Tuesday that the concept of birthright citizenship is being exploited by foreign nationals, including those from adversarial nations such as China and Russia.
“China is definitely an adversary to this nation [that] has worked in many ways to undermine us,” added Michael Cloud, another Texas Republican, responding to expert testimony. “We could spend a whole half an hour or hours actually on that.”
Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said allegations surrounding birth tourism and “anchor babies” amounted to hallucinations.


“Setting aside the fact that the Republicans’ own witnesses cannot show actual proof that birth tourism happens on any meaningful or widespread basis, any congressional response certainly does not involve upending constitutional fundamentals,” she added.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said in a press release on its website that nearly 26,000 babies are born annually to women on tourist visas, while an estimated 70,000 births in 2023 were to women in the US as temporary visitors.
There is no federal dataset that measures birth tourism, with available estimates that vary widely, indicating the practice is rare.
Penn State researchers estimated that birth tourism accounted for fewer than 0.3 per cent of all US births in any year from 2014 to 2024.
Close to 3.6 million US births were registered in 2023, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Even going with the Oversight Committee’s figures, births attributed to temporary visitors would represent less than 2 per cent of all US births that year.
Public discussion often casts birth tourism as particularly widespread among wealthy Asians, the Penn State report said. But, it added, “the majority of birth tourists are Hispanic mothers”.
Trump’s second term has seen him target both legal and illegal immigration, affecting nearly every part of the system, from restrictions on visas for skilled workers and students to an increased ICE presence.
On Trump’s first day back in office in 2025, he signed an executive order that directed federal agencies not to recognise the citizenship of children born in the US when their parents were undocumented or present under temporary visas.
The Supreme Court in Trump vs Barbara ruled 6–3 to block the executive order to restrict birthright citizenship. The ruling held that children born in the US to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment.
After the ruling, Trump took to social media to pen a sardonic post about China. “I would like to congratulate President Xi, and the Great Country of China, on their massive Birthright Citizenship WIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote.
This week’s hearings come at a critical juncture in the Trump administration’s fight against birthright citizenship. Since the ruling, the federal government has made several attempts to continue challenging automatic citizenship as it stands today.
In his latest push, Trump signed two executive orders in August. One of them directed officials to investigate suspected birth tourism operations, consider legal action against businesses facilitating such practices and strengthen visa screening.
The other order sought to expand the categories of children who the government says are not entitled to birthright citizenship, directing federal agencies to examine remaining legal restrictions.
On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from carrying out the second order for now, saying the move was likely to be unlawful.
US District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, issued a preliminary injunction at the request of immigrant rights advocates, noting that the president’s order was “almost certainly unconstitutional”.
“The Supreme Court has spoken: children in the certified class are ‘citizens at birth’,” the judge said.


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Congressional hearings put Chinese birth tourism in the spotlight as the Trump administration presses its challenge to automatic citizenship


Congressional hearings put Chinese birth tourism in the spotlight as the Trump administration presses its challenge to automatic citizenship.


US lawmakers target China, birth tourism as citizenship fight intensifies

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Congressional hearings put Chinese birth tourism in the spotlight as the Trump administration presses its challenge to automatic citizenship

Congressional hearings put Chinese birth tourism in the spotlight as the Trump administration presses its challenge to automatic citizenship