Free Republic

On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment automatically makes all babies born on American territory citizens. Trump’s effort to overturn the traditional reading of the constitutional text and history should not succeed. Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment provided a constitutional definition of citizenship for the first time. It declares that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." In antebellum America, states...

Gen Z is hopping on planes for more than adventure—they’re doing it to have babies. A growing number of young American parents are choosing to give birth outside the U.S., often in countries with better healthcare, more generous parental leave, and cheaper delivery costs. According to a new survey from Greenback Expat Tax Services, more than one in four Gen Z expats have already given birth abroad—and nearly two-thirds say they’re planning to. Among all U.S. expats surveyed, 54% had already had a child while living abroad. Millennials lead the charge with nearly 3 in 5 reporting overseas births, but...

A South Florida business is turning childbirth into a passport to the American dream. The booming business is called Have My Baby in Miami and offers maternity services to foreigners. While President Donald Trump is pushing to end birthright citizenship, experts say the practice is constitutional. Have My Baby in Miami is a concierge service for foreigners who want to have their baby on U.S. soil. “Once you arrive in the USA, we recommend you obtain an American SIM card,” the company says on its website. The Have My Baby in Miami website says it offers “complete logistical support.” The...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift. The Fourteenth Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” That provision rightly repudiated the Supreme Court of the United States’s shameful decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which misinterpreted the Constitution as...

Birthright citizenship is a much discussed topic in the media as some Republicans have toyed with the idea of getting rid of it, arguing that it was never constitutional. Congressman Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., earlier this week criticized a loophole that Chinese nationals are reportedly using to get U.S. citizenship through a U.S. territory. "Under an Obama-era policy, Chinese nationals can visit the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands without a visa," Tiffany wrote on the social media platform, X. "Chinese women visit the islands to deliver their babies who automatically become U.S. citizens." According to reports, there is a...

It’s summertime, which calls to mind the perennial question for parents: where can we take the kids on vacation and learn something along the way? That question sustains our nation’s massive heritage tourism industry. Odds are you already have a list full of destinations with fascinating museums and popular historic sites. But it’s not just about kids and vacations. In the buildup to the nation’s 2026 semiquincentennial birthday celebration, planners everywhere are hoping to leverage history tourism to boost their local economies. Boston’s Freedom Trail—arguably the nation’s most popular American heritage tourism site— appears to offer a prime example for...

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner for president in 2024, rolled out a new policy pledge on Tuesday in which he promised if elected he would sign an executive order on day one of his second term in office effectively ending birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and so-called “birth tourism.”The policy proposal, contained in one of his Agenda 47 videos his campaign released, was obtained exclusively by Breitbart News ahead of its public release.“As part of my plan to secure the border, on day one of my new term in office I will sign an executive order making clear...

Having met a number of global traveler-types, I was surprised some years ago when I heard American citizenship described in very unromantic, mercantile terms. The most common expression was, “It’s a good passport to have.” For blood and soil Americans, citizenship is something entirely different. After all, two-thirds of Americans do not even have a passport. Rather, this nation is who we are. It is mom, apple pie, Main Street, the English language, our ancestors, our only political loyalty, and our destiny. Unlike globe-trotting “citizens of the world,” we are not just passing through. A similarly crass view of citizenship...

City officials in Orange ordered a small motel operating as a birth tourism lodge to shut down by the end of the month. Council members on Tuesday night revoked the JR Motel’s conditional use permit, saying the owner did not operate the facility for its intended use. The JR Motel doesn’t have a sign or take reservations from the general public. Instead, it caters to well-off Chinese women who come to the United States while pregnant with the intention of giving birth to a child who, by law, will be an American citizen. Though the practice isn’t illegal, city officials...

  "Together, we will create an immigration system to make America safer, and stronger, and greater than ever before."  President Donald J. Trump  COMBATTING BIRTH TOURISM:  President Donald J. Trump is taking action to combat birth tourism. The Administration is taking action to end “birth tourism” – a practice in which aliens travel to the United States with the purpose of giving birth to gain citizenship for their children. Organizations bring in large numbers of aliens to systematically exploit this loophole and unfairly provide citizenship for their children.Most birth tourism groups charge tens of thousands of dollars, which often doesn’t...

President Donald Trump’s curbs against “birth tourism” are discriminatory and dangerous, say pro-migration progressives. The rule “gives individual consular officials broad and unchecked authority to discriminate against visa applicants based on gender and age and will likely disproportionality affect women and girls of color,” says Phillip Wolgin, the managing director for immigration policy at the Democrats’ main think-tank, the pro-migration Center for American Progress. Wolgin and other critics did not directly defend the commonplace practice by wealthier foreigners who try to snatch U.S. citizenship for their children by birthing them in the United States. But they did suggest alternative ways...

Trump administration reveals 'birth tourism' crackdown: Pregnant women trying to travel to the U.S. to get American citizenship for their babies will be REFUSED visas Trump administration will unveils crackdown on birth tourism and will bring it into force Friday Move is against women who come to the U.S. to give birth to children so they get American citizenship Visa applicants deemed by consular officers to be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth will now be treated like other foreigners seeking medical treatment The applicants will have to prove they are coming for medical treatment and they have...

The Trump administration is coming out Thursday with new visa restrictions aimed at restricting “birth tourism,” in which women travel to the U.S. to give birth so their children can have a coveted U.S. passport. Visa applicants deemed by consular officers to be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth will now be treated like other foreigners coming to the U.S. for medical treatment, according to State Department guidance sent Wednesday and viewed by The Associated Press. The applicants will have to prove they are coming for medical treatment and they have the money to pay for it. The...

Now that we seem to be starting to get a handle on the immigration crisis on the southern border, reports have surfaced indicating that President Trump will turn his attention to another thorn in our side on the immigration front. This one doesn’t crop up in the news quite as often, but so-called “birth tourism” is a very real thing and it results in a lot of children winding up with US citizenship even though neither they nor their parents have any legitimate ties to our country. (Some estimates put the figure at 33,000 babies per year being born...

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to unveil a rule this week aimed at cracking down on "birth tourism" — a term referring to pregnant women traveling to the U.S. in order to give birth and secure U.S. citizenship for their child. Three officials told Axios on Sunday that the plain will be unveiled in the days ahead, though it was unclear what enforcement mechanism would be utilized by the administration to prevent birth tourism. President Trump has previously threatened to issue executive orders nullifying birthright citizenship, which is enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. "This change is...

In November, 25-year-old Japanese citizen Midori Nishida was checking into a flight to Saipan, a US island in the Pacific, where she was going to visit her parents. She wasn't pregnant, and said so on a check-in questionnaire, but airline staff made her take a pregnancy test anyways before she was allowed to board. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nishida was asked to give permission to an authorized medical provider to conduct a "fit-to-fly" assessment, and the form said it was for women who had a body size or shape resembling a pregnant woman. Nishida told the Wall Street...

Japanese citizen Midori Nishida was checking in to a flight in Hong Kong in November to visit her parents on Saipan, a U.S. island in the Pacific, when airline staff made an unusual demand. She had to take a pregnancy test if she wanted to board. Ms. Nishida, 25 years old, was escorted to a public rest room and handed a strip to urinate on. The test was part of the response of one airline, Hong Kong Express Airways, to immigration concerns in Saipan. The island has become a destination for women intending to give birth on U.S. territory, making their babies eligible for...

The JR Motel in Orange has no sign, takes no reservations and hasn’t paid any city hotel taxes. The motel openly caters to Chinese nationals as a maternity facility, a practice known as birth tourism. But that’s not the use permitted for the site, at 428 E. Lincoln Avenue. City officials in Orange are looking to revoke the motel’s permit, something the motel’s owner says is driven by discrimination.

Every year, hundreds of pregnant Russian women travel to the United States to give birth so that their child can acquire all the privileges of American citizenship. They pay anywhere from $20,000 to sometimes more than $50,000 to brokers who arrange their travel documents, accommodations and hospital stays, often in Florida.

An analysis of the exploitation of our laws by criminal aliens.