- President Trump shifts focus to blocking pregnant foreign women after birthright citizenship ruling
- White House directs DOJ to prioritize investigations into birth tourism schemes
- Policy options include prosecuting birth tourism fraud or barring pregnant visitors
After the begrudging defeat from the Supreme Court in the birthright citizenship case, US President Donald Trump's aides and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) allies are reportedly pivoting to their Plan B: targeting the so-called 'birth tourism' by blocking pregnant foreign women from entering America.
By definition, birth tourism occurs when visitors come to America specifically to give birth to ensure their child receives US citizenship.
After the Supreme Court verdict, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, in a statement to Axios, said, "President Trump remains totally committed to protecting the value of natural-born American citizenship, which is why, following yesterday's ruling, he directed Congress to take immediate action to address this."
Jackson emphasised that the Department of Justice will also prioritise investigations of birth tourism schemes, adding that the Trump administration has many tools to safeguard American citizenship.
The Policy Options
This was followed by a discussion about the many policy options among White House aides and allies, who noted that the next course of action could include prosecuting organisations or individuals involved in "birth tourism schemes" or women already in the country for fraud or barring the entry of pregnant women entirely, Politico reported, citing two administration officials and several others close to the administration.
MAGA figures like Federalist founder Sean Davis also came forward and demanded that the Trump administration bar pregnant foreign women from entering the country.
While talking to Fox News, Trump's immigration policy advisor Stephen Miller also claimed that America must "think very carefully about who you let into your country, even on a temporary basis", because, according to him, children born to non-Americans can become US citizens and get an opportunity to access the social safety net.
The DOJ Diktat
Though so far, Trump hasn't directly endorsed banning pregnant visitors, the US Department of Justice has already released a memo this week urging prosecutors to investigate the so-called birth tourism.
"The criminal laws of the United States already prohibit conduct inherent to so many of these so-called 'birth tourism' schemes. For example, many such schemes start with a false visa application -- with lies about the purpose or duration of one's travel to the United States," Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald wrote in the memo posted to X.
He added that many of these cases could be prosecuted under visa fraud, but prosecutors should consider wire fraud, health care fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft charges.
Why This Matters
If taken forward, the proposal has the potential to start new immigration challenges related to pregnancy, travel and citizenship, shifting the conversation away from challenging the rights of children born in the US to restricting who can enter the country.
Though there are no official figures to track how many babies are born to foreign visitors in America annually, the Axios report cited private estimates, putting the number at around 20,000 to 26,000 cases per year. This number is minuscule compared to the total childbirths in America annually. According to Centres for Disease Control data, 3.6 million babies were born in America in 2025.
Critics have also warned of the perils of the government accessing pregnancy data. Katie O'Connor, senior director of federal abortion policy at the National Women's Law Center, told Axios that "the idea that data about who's pregnant and how pregnant could get into the hands of the federal government, much less the state governments – that's a really dangerous proposition."
