U.S. Birth Tourism Statistics: Prosecutions and Executive Orders

Birth tourism in the USA is the practice of foreign nationals entering the country on temporary visas primarily to give birth, so that their children acquire U.S. citizenship at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment. No federal agency counts these births, and credible estimates run from fewer than 2,000 a year to roughly 70,000, depending on method. The federal response has moved on several tracks at once: criminal prosecutions of organized operators, a 2020 State Department rule tightening visitor visas for pregnant applicants, a 2025 executive order that tried to end birthright citizenship for children of temporary and unlawful visitors, and a June 2026 Supreme Court decision striking that order down.

How Common Is It

The honest answer is that no one knows. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said as much during Supreme Court oral arguments in April 2026: “No one knows for sure.”¹

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 9,576 births in 2024 to mothers who listed a foreign address, but that number is a rough proxy at best. Some birth tourists give U.S. addresses so they receive documents before leaving, and some mothers with foreign addresses were not in the country for citizenship purposes.¹

The Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower immigration, has produced the most-cited estimates. Steven Camarota put the figure at 20,000 to 26,000 annual births in a 2020 analysis. A February 2025 CIS report by Jason Richwine and Camarota estimated around 70,000 births in 2023, though that broader number covered all “long-term temporary visitors,” including guestworkers and foreign students, not just tourists who came specifically to give birth.²¹

Jeremy Neufeld of the Niskanen Center published detailed rebuttals identifying arithmetic errors in the CIS methodology and arguing that more than 90 percent of the women CIS counted had been in the country at least two years. Once those long-term residents were removed, Neufeld concluded, fewer than 2,000 actual birth tourists remained, a figure he called “statistically indistinguishable from zero” given the survey margin of error.³⁴ A group of 140 university professors told the Supreme Court that birth tourism accounts for an “infinitesimal proportion” of the roughly 3.6 million annual U.S. births.⁵

How the Industry Operates

Federal investigations describe an organized business, with clients most often from China and Russia and smaller numbers from Nigeria and Turkey. Package deals typically run $20,000 to $100,000 and cover visa preparation, travel, housing, medical coordination, and transportation.⁶

Operators frequently run “maternity hotels” or rented apartment complexes that house expectant mothers during the final weeks of pregnancy. Federal indictments say clients are coached to lie to consular officers about the purpose and length of their trips, often instructed to claim two-week stays. Some are told to wear loose clothing to hide pregnancies from customs officers or to route travel through Hawaii or Las Vegas, where inspection was perceived as less rigorous.⁷ Prosecutors note that many clients leave behind unpaid hospital bills, sent to collections or absorbed by hospitals and taxpayers.⁸

In South Florida, Russian-linked operations cluster around Sunny Isles Beach, sometimes called “Little Russia.” Miami Mama reported bringing about 100 Russian-speaking clients a year before a 2017 FBI raid produced a conviction for false statements on passport applications. Miami Care has said it arranges trips for roughly 150 Russian families a year, and an estimated 30 similar firms operate in the area.⁹¹⁰

Federal Prosecutions

The largest enforcement action to date came on January 31, 2019, when federal authorities unsealed indictments against 19 people connected to three Southern California operations. Charges included conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, international money laundering, identity theft, and filing false tax returns.⁷

You Win USA in Orange County was run by Dongyuan Li, who claimed more than 500 customers at $40,000 to $80,000 each and received $3 million in international wire transfers over two years. Li pleaded guilty to conspiracy and visa fraud, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, and forfeited over $850,000 in cash, a residence, and several vehicles.¹¹ Star Baby Care in Los Angeles County, run by Wen Rui Deng, was alleged to have served 8,000 pregnant women since 1999, including Chinese government officials.⁷ USA Happy Baby in San Bernardino County, run by Michael Liu and Phoebe Dong, charged up to $100,000 for “VIP” packages and helped more than 100 pregnant Chinese women enter the country; both were convicted in September 2024 and sentenced to 41 months.¹²

Sixteen of the 19 defendants had fled to China as of the indictments and remained fugitives. Attorney Ken Zhuyin Liang was sentenced to 21 months for helping material witnesses leave the country.⁷ On April 9, 2026, ICE launched a dedicated Birth Tourism Initiative aimed at fraud, financial crimes, and facilitation networks; no arrests under the initiative had been announced as of mid-2026.¹³

The 2020 Visa Rule

In January 2020, the State Department finalized an amendment to 22 CFR 41.31 targeting birth tourism directly. The rule created a rebuttable presumption that any B-visa applicant a consular officer has reason to believe will give birth during her stay is traveling primarily to obtain U.S. citizenship for a child. To rebut it, the applicant must show an alternative primary purpose and provide documentation, including proof that a physician has agreed to provide care and evidence of financial means to cover all expenses.¹⁴¹⁵ The rule remains in effect.

It reversed a 2015 State Department policy that had told consular officers not to deny visas based solely on an intent to give birth, treating that travel as “medical.” A Senate Homeland Security Committee investigation concluded that the 2015 policy had made birth tourism more accessible and that the 2020 reversal contributed to the closure of at least one major operation, Miami Mama.⁸ The Niskanen Center criticized the rule as disproportionate, arguing it shifts the burden of proof to the applicant and produces what the group called “deeply intrusive” and “gendered” consular interview practices.³

The 2025 Executive Order and the Supreme Court

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” It directed federal agencies to stop recognizing U.S. citizenship for children born after February 19, 2025, if the mother was unlawfully present and the father was not a citizen or lawful permanent resident, or if the mother held only temporary legal status and the father was not a citizen or lawful permanent resident.¹⁶

The order never took effect. Federal courts blocked it immediately. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” Judge Joseph Laplante of the District of New Hampshire issued a preliminary injunction, writing that the order likely “contradicts the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and the century-old untouched precedent that interprets it.”¹⁷

The case reached the Supreme Court as Trump v. Barbara (No. 25-365). The Court granted certiorari before the First Circuit could rule and heard argument on April 1, 2026. The administration relied heavily on birth tourism to defend the order, arguing that “domicile” and “allegiance” should determine whether a child born on U.S. soil is “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, the key phrase in the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause. Opponents pointed to the 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that children born in the U.S. to resident aliens are citizens at birth.¹⁷¹⁸

On June 30, 2026, the Court ruled 5-4 to affirm the lower court, holding that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, and Jackson. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch each dissented, and Justice Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment and dissented in part.¹⁹ The ruling ended the executive order’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. The 2020 visa rule and criminal enforcement against organized operators remain the government’s active tools.

What Happened in the Northern Mariana Islands

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, became a visible birth tourism hub because visa-waiver programs allowed Chinese nationals relatively easy entry. Births to foreign tourists in the territory peaked at 574 in 2018.²⁰

The federal government launched the Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorization Program on February 21, 2025. EVS-TAP replaced the previous discretionary parole system for Chinese nationals visiting the CNMI, requiring advance electronic authorization and additional security vetting and capping stays at 14 days, down from 45 under the standard Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program.²¹²⁰ Two weeks is too short for most expectant mothers to remain through the final weeks of pregnancy. Births to tourists in the territory fell to 47 in 2025.¹

1
FactCheck.org. What Do We Know About Birth Tourism
2
Center for Immigration Studies. Births to Illegal Immigrants and Long-Term Temporary Visitors
3
Niskanen Center. The Birth Tourism Bogeyman
4
Niskanen Center. Birth Tourism Revisited
5
USA Today. Birth Tourism and Birthright Citizenship Supreme Court
6
Migration Policy Institute. Birth Tourism Trump
7
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Federal Prosecutors Unseal Indictments Naming 19 People Linked to Chinese Birth Tourism
8
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Portman Report Exposes Birth Tourism Industry
9
NBC News. Birth Tourism Brings Russian Baby Boom to Miami
10
NBC Miami. Mother Russia: South Florida Sees a Boom in Birth Tourism
11
U.S. Department of Justice. Chinese National Pleads Guilty to Running Birth Tourism Scheme
12
Voice of America. Woman Gets More Than 3-Year Prison Term in U.S. Birthright Tourism Case
13
Immigration Policy Tracking. ICE Launches Birth Tourism Initiative
14
U.S. Department of State. Birth Tourism Update
15
AILA. DOS Final Rule Concerning Birth Tourism Medical
16
The White House. Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship
17
SCOTUSblog. Supreme Court Appears Likely to Side Against Trump on Birthright Citizenship
18
Oyez. Trump v. Barbara
19
Cornell Law Institute. Trump v. Barbara
20
Pacific Island Times. Congressional Pressure Mounts to Curb Chinese Travel to CNMI
21
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Guam-CNMI EVS-TAP