(José Niño, Headline USA) Researcher Steven Camarota told lawmakers Tuesday that as many as 300,000 babies were born on American soil to visiting foreigners over the past 10 years, according to Breitbart. Camarota, who directs research at the Center for Immigration Studies, delivered the figures before a House Oversight Committee task force chaired by Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas.
Breitbart reports the hearing focused on birth tourism, a practice where foreign nationals travel to the United States specifically to give birth so their children automatically gain American citizenship. Camarota explained his organization’s methodology to the panel, stating “the best estimate we have made at the Center for Immigration Studies of the possible number of births to tourists is 20,000 to 26,000 a year, though that estimate is based on data from 2016 and 2017.”
He told the committee the yearly totals might look small next to overall US birth numbers, but they add up over time. “Assuming the numbers we estimated in the past continued, some 200,000 to 300,000 children were born to birth tourists over the last decade, hardly a trivial number,” Camarota said, according to Breitbart.
Public opinion data cited during the hearing showed low support for the current system, with Breitbart noting that just 25 percent of Americans favor automatically handing citizenship to children born to visiting foreigners. Camarota linked that skepticism to concerns over how citizenship gets obtained, saying “the sense among most Americans that birth tourism is a problem stems, I believe, directly from the idea that it turns American citizenship, one of the most valuable things in the world, into something that can be obtained under false pretenses.”
Camarota also distinguished birth tourism from cases involving children of illegal immigrants born domestically, per Breitbart. “There are many problems with granting automatic citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants. However, at least the children of illegal immigrants typically grow up in the United States,” he told the panel. He added that “this is generally not so for children born to birth tourists.”
According to Camarota’s testimony, those children face none of the usual entry barriers once they reach adulthood. “And yet, as American citizens, they are able to enter the U.S. with no prior screening, attend college and receive financial aid, work at almost any job they choose, even with the federal government, and access all public benefits immediately upon arrival,” he said, as reported by Breitbart.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
