# Plain Language Summary: Ban Birth Tourism Act

This bill aims to prevent foreign nationals from coming to the United States specifically to give birth so their children automatically become U.S. citizens. Currently, anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically a U.S. citizen under the Constitution, regardless of their parents' immigration status. The bill would change this by denying automatic citizenship to babies born to parents who are in the country illegally or on temporary visas, if those parents came to the U.S. primarily for the purpose of giving birth.

The bill would affect pregnant women who travel to the U.S. on tourist or temporary visas with the intention of delivering their babies here. Under this law, their children would not automatically receive U.S. citizenship at birth, even though they were born on American soil. Instead, the children would likely inherit their parents' citizenship status. The bill also targets what's known as "birth tourism"—a practice where some foreign families pay for maternity packages and travel to the U.S. specifically to have their babies born as U.S. citizens, which can provide those children with future immigration and educational benefits.

To enforce this, the bill would require immigration officials and hospitals to identify women who appear to have entered the country primarily for childbirth purposes. This could involve questioning pregnant women about their intentions and documenting their reasons for being in the U.S. The practical impact would be significant for immigration enforcement and could create complications for hospitals and doctors who would need to determine a patient's immigration intent. It would also represent a major change to birthright citizenship, a principle that has been part of American law since the 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War.

Ban Birth Tourism Act

Blackburn, Marsha

Ban Birth Tourism Act This bill provides statutory authority for the ban on admitting an alien into the United States as a nonimmigrant if the alien's primary purpose for entering is to give birth to a child in the United States in order to obtain U.S. citizenship for that child.