Birth tourism: Study puts number on impact of birthright citizenship

Foreign tourists to the U.S. give birth to 33,000 babies a year — each of them immediately becoming a citizen — according to a new report being released Thursday that puts numbers on the extent to which immigrants make use of America’s birthright citizenship policy.

Almost all of those 33,000 are part of birth tourism, says Steven A. Camarota, the researcher at the Center for Immigration Studies who did the report. That means they came to the U.S. while pregnant on short-term visas for the express purpose of giving birth and earning their child immediate citizenship.

Some 39,000 other foreigner women here on temporary student or guest-worker visas also give birth, Mr. Camarota calculated.

More