A day after the Supreme Court preserved birthright citizenship, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said DOJ, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations will prioritize stopping “birth tourism” and pursue related fraud cases.
A DOJ memo from Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald told staff to bring fraud charges against people accused of exploiting tourist or other temporary visas to give birth in the United States.
The administration has offered limited evidence that the practice is widespread: its lawyer told the court in April “no one knows for sure,” while the Center for Immigration Studies estimated 20,000 to 26,000 such births a year—under 1% of US births.
The push keeps alive a central Trump argument after the court rejected his 14th Amendment theory as “scant evidence” for a “dramatically revisionist view,” leaving the White House to seek legislation that would face the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster.