Pregnant women can’t come to this country: Trump administration cracks down on ‘birth tourism’ after US Supreme Court rules on birthright citizenship
The Trump administration is considering tighter restrictions on pregnant foreign travelers entering the United States, with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller saying officials would “take a hard look” at the idea in the wake of the Supreme Court’s latest ruling on birthright citizenship.In an interview with Fox News, Miller said the administration would review immigration policy over concerns about “birth tourism,” a term that refers to foreigners who travel to the United States to give birth so that their children can obtain U.S. citizenship.Asked if the government was considering banning pregnant women from entering the country, Miller responded: “Jesse, I would say you have to think very carefully about who you let into your country right now, even temporarily, because as you said, the possibility of birth tourism, right, that’s what they do. People come here simply to give birth to a child on American soil, and that child becomes a lifelong citizen.“He continued: “So, yes, you can’t have another country’s immigration program when you have a child here, and now the child is a U.S. citizen. So, there are a lot of things that we have to seriously consider, Jesse.”Miller also believed that children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States could later provide financial support to family members abroad, saying they would be able to send welfare payments to “support entire families in the Third World.”A few days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot overturn the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship through executive order. The ruling was criticized by some Republicans. Among them is Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, who announced legislation called the “Anchor Off Act.” The proposed bill would prevent certain foreign pregnant women from entering the United States unless they are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.Ogles announced the proposal in a video posted on social media, saying, “So, I have a bill; it’s going to be called ‘Anchors Away,’ and if you’re not a U.S. citizen, if you’re not a green card holder, but you have a child on U.S. soil, today, that child will become a U.S. citizen.”He added: “Under my bill, under my legislation, we solve this problem. … In short, what this bill does is, if you are pregnant, you cannot enter the country. You have to be a citizen, and here, you have to be a green card holder. Therefore, if you are pregnant and do not hold one of these statuses, you will not be admitted. “The proposed legislation takes its name from the term “anchor babies,” a term used by immigration critics to describe the children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States.Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert also reacted to the court’s ruling, calling on the State Department to “immediately stop issuing visas to pregnant applicants.”Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin later said the administration was prepared to “consider” restrictions on entry of pregnant travelers.The debate has also drawn attention to the scale of so-called birth tourism. According to a 2020 estimate by the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that supports lowering immigration levels, 20,000 to 26,000 cases of birth tourism occur in the United States each year. This represented less than one percent of the country’s 3.61 million births that year.
