Sauer cites ‘striking’ figures on secretive birth tourism in high-stakes SCOTUS case
Birth tourism in the U.S. remains notoriously difficult to measure, but Solicitor General John Sauer on Wednesday pointed the Supreme Court to what he called "striking" figures as the justices...
By Fox News · Fox News
Birth tourism in the U.S. remains notoriously difficult to measure, but Solicitor General John Sauer on Wednesday pointed the Supreme Court to what he called "striking" figures as the justices weighed President Donald Trump’s effort to curb birthright citizenship. "Here's a fact about it that I think is striking," Sauer said. "Media reported as early as 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 nation." Sauer's response came after Chief Justice John Roberts asked him about the prevalence of birth tourism, which is the practice of traveling to the United States for the purpose of giving birth, so the child can automatically receive U.S. citizenship. Sauer acknowledged that "no one knows for sure" about firm data in the industry before citing media figures estimating more than 1 million cases from China alone. NEARLY ALL REPUBLICAN AGS ADD FIREPOWER TO TRUMP'S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP PUSH Wednesday’s oral arguments centered on Trump’s 2025 executive order advancing a narrower interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause so that children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily would not automatically receive U.S. citizenship. The administration has argued the amendment's birthright citizenship provision incentivizes and rewards illegal immigration. Conservatives have long raised concerns about birth tourism. Senate Republicans wrote in a 2022 report that it was a lucrative industry that "short circuits and demeans the U.S. naturalization process." But the scale of birth tourism remains elusive, and proponents of birthright citizenship have downplayed it, contending it occurs infrequently. The GOP senators noted in the report that they could not calculate birth tourism numbers because the U.S. government does not have a way to track them. Existing visa data canno…