Dr. Athiya Javid, an Indian American doctor in San Jose, is being investigated by the U.S government for allegedly facilitating “birth tourism.” According to the allegations, the doctor and three companies — Doctores Para Ti, Have My Baby in Miami, and International Maternity Services — advertised birth tourism services through their websites.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Brandon Gill sent letters Thursday to the maternity firms in Florida, Texas, and California, requesting records related to their marketing materials and “the number of clients serviced and amount of fees collected for childbirth packages.” They pointed out that foreign mothers who visit the U.S. with the explicit purpose of giving birth there come predominantly from Russia and China, causing concerns about national security.
“The benefits of U.S. citizenship are a unique privilege,” wrote Comer and Gill, who chairs the Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses.
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“However, as foreign expectant mothers traveling for this purpose come predominantly from China and Russia, there are concerns that the birth tourism industry is giving rise to potential national security and election integrity threats posed by adversarial nations that challenge U.S. interests,” they said.
“While it is not inherently illegal for a foreign traveler to give birth in the United States, willfully misrepresenting one’s intentions to enter the country on a temporary visitor visa is a violation of current law and considered visa fraud,” they added.
The lawmakers noted the websites had explicitly marketed their services to foreign mothers, and provided additional “legal consultations” and support such as temporary housing and step-by-step instructions for making trips to give birth in the U.S.
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Reports state that these expectant mothers typically enter the U.S. However, the U.S. State Department bars consular officers from providing the visas to individuals. who are believed to be traveling into the country “for this primary purpose.”
“The Department considers birth tourism an inappropriate basis for the issuance of temporary visitor visas for the policy reasons discussed herein,” a federal rule published in 2020 stated.
This comes amid an ongoing debate on birthright citizenship.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump had signed an executive order to end automatic birthright citizenship. This order drew criticism and was challenged in court, with many claiming it violated the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and federal statute. The 14th Amendment guarantees “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.”