The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress will pursue legislation “to close the birth tourism loophole” that the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday allowed to stand, says Eric Eggers of the Government Accountability Institute.
The High Court’s decision on Tuesday in the Trump v. Barbara case overturns an executive order by the Trump administration ordering federal agencies not to automatically recognize the children of people in the US illegally as birthright American citizens.
“So, if you want to reassert and reclaim U.S. sovereignty, as Donald Trump clearly does, and as the American people who supported him in his efforts to do so in 2024, then I think that pursuing a legislative solution to closing the birth tourism loophole is probably the remedy they’ll pursue,” Eggers told Bev Turner of GBN News in the UK.
GAI research contained in Peter Schweizer’s bestselling book, The Invisible Coup, exposed the “birth tourism” industry, finding that in the past 14 years as many as one million Chinese babies may have born on US soil, then quickly returned to China where they are being raised.
During oral arguments on the case, the government cited statistics found in the book that there are more than 500 Chinese-owned companies operating within the US that facilitate birth tourism by Chinese nationals.
Eggers said the concurring opinion in the case by Justice Brett Kavanaugh may offer hope to curb this practice through the law.
He described the operation of more than a thousand such companies operating in China as “a cottage industry that Chinese elites actively take advantage of.” He added, “If you’re taking advantage of this, you’re spending tens of thousands of dollars. You’re a part of the Chinese elite, which means you’re sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party. You’re not some dissident who happens to be wealthy in China, coming here to claim US citizenship rights.”
“So, these are heavily pregnant women, coming over here to give birth in this country under the American healthcare system, and in such significant numbers? That’s just extraordinary,” said host Bev Turner.
“Under the Obama administration, they actually advised consular officials not to turn away women who appear to be heavily pregnant. They even extended the visa period for women so they could come here specifically to have children,” Eggers replied. “And these birth tourism companies actively coach their clientele to conceal the fact that they are pregnant by wearing loose clothing. They even coach them on how to lie about what their intended purpose is in visiting this country, and then even coach them to skip out on the bill at the hospital.”
Eggers was challenged on GAI’s estimates by panelist Mally Smith, a Democratic strategist, who cited research by the Centers for Disease Control placing the actual figures far lower. Eggers disagreed.
“These numbers that we cited in the book came from China itself. China itself says at least 50,000 [per year]. Academics who travel and lecture regularly in China say it’s 100,000 per year, and one study, based on Chinese figures, says 185,000 in a previous year,” Eggers responded. “So, the scope of this is, as we’ve reported, on an industrial scale. China tends to do things in large ways.”
