WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 2: D. John Sawyer, Special Assistant to the Louisiana Attorney General, listens during a hearing with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on Capitol Hill on July 20, 2023 in Washington, DC. Committee members held hearings to discuss examples of alleged censorship of citizens, political figures, and journalists by the US government. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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During arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, a Trump administration lawyer pressed his claim that so-called birth tourism is strong evidence that the US policy of automatically granting citizenship to babies born in the country needs to be ended.
Advocate, Solicitor General D. John Sawyersaid that there are many companies, especially those that cater to Chinese and Russian oligarchWho offers to help them enter America so that their children can be born there and acquire citizenship.
“Congress Report We quoted in our brief conversation about some of the hot spots, like Russian oligarchs coming to Miami through these birth tourism companies,” Sawyer told the high court judges as President Donald Trump looked on from the gallery.
Trump signed in January 2025 An executive order that would effectively end birthright citizenshipWhich has been considered the law of the land for more than 150 years due to the 14th amendment of the Constitution.
“The media reported in early 2015 that, based on Chinese media reports, there are 500 – 500 – birth tourism companies in the People’s Republic of China whose business is to bring people here to give birth and return to that country,” said Sawyer, who called that figure “astonishing” without specifying which media report he was referring to.
The Solicitor General, citing a March 9 letter sent by members of Congress to the Department of Homeland Security, said that media reports indicate that approximately 1.5 million Chinese citizens with US citizenship may have obtained this status through the “birth tourism” industry.
The United States does not officially track the number of children born to travelers on visit visas.
Latest estimates from Center for Immigration Studieswhich advocates reducing immigration, put the number of “birth tourists” in 2020 at about 20,000 to 26,000 babies per year.
The letter cites Breitbart News Network, a conservative media outlet, which attributes the 1.5 million estimate to author Peter Schweizer, who claimed they would be U.S. citizens growing up in China and returning to the U.S. to legally vote when they turn 18. Schweizer also argues that when those people turn 21, they will apply for US residency status for their parents.
There was a woman and her husband convicted In 2025, her birth tourism operation, USA Happy Baby, was charged with conspiracy and money laundering.
And in 2015, federal officials indictment There are 19 people linked to three “birth tourism” operations in Southern California. Federal authorities arrested three of those defendants in 2019.