Over the last two days, President Trump has repeatedly slammed the practice of birth tourism. While the informal use of “anchor babies” has tended to describe children born in the U.S. with the intention of staying in the U.S., birth tourism tends to cater to wealthy foreigners from nations hostile to democracy and the U.S. government, such as Russia and China. While from a statistical perspective, birth tourism and births in maternity hotels comprise very few births on American soil to foreign nationals, the government could effectively target birth tourism without touching the precedent of birthright citizenship.
It’s first worth noting why targeting birth tourism matters. Whereas immigrants coming to the country via ground transportation tend to aspire to truly become Americans, foreign mothers who give birth in maternity hotels often do so specifically to siphon off American benefits for their children while returning to their home countries. Unlike parents coming from countries that are our allies both politically and culturally, Russian and Chinese mothers not only bring their children back to their countries and instill national values antithetical to America, but they frequently do so to allow their children easier access to American universities and government financial aid. Furthermore, birth tourism allows parents to reap economic benefits of American citizenship while avoiding taxation altogether.
[Read: Can Trump end birthright citizenship?]
For starters, many maternity hotels themselves are illegal entities, open secrets in Los Angeles and Miami. They defraud the U.S. government to help citizens still loyal to countries actively subverting American sovereignty. Without changing a single law, the federal government could crack down on the maternity hotels which coach women to lie to immigration officials and illegally evade taxes.
Second, the government is well within its rights to deny visas to expectant mothers from countries known to engage in birth tourism. Currently, no policy prevents foreign nationals from entering the country specifically to have a child. But a law against such a practice could be passed. This wouldn’t affect illegal immigration, but it could cut off birth tourism completely.
Given all of the liberal outrage over Russia’s attempts to thwart the legitimacy of our democratic process, the Left ought to support Trump’s attacks on birth tourism. Babies born in maternity hotels often aren’t anchor babies intended to — illegally or not — confer the gift of joining American society. Birth tourism is a worthy target, both as a matter of immigration policy and our national sovereignty.
