Hageman: Here’s How Trump Can Close Birth Tourism Loopholes

Birth tourism loopholes that allow foreigners to exploit America’s rent-a-womb industry and buy their way into birthplace citizenship by commissioning a child abound. According to Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., however, all hope of closing those loopholes, “protecting children,” and “promoting national security,” even after the Supreme Court’s Trump v. Barbara decision, is not lost.

President Donald Trump tried to take aim at the birth tourism industry in his August 6 executive order when he clarified that children born to an “alien enemy,” such as members of designated foreign terrorist organizations, are not entitled to birthplace citizenship. That executive order alone, Hageman warned in a letter to the White House on Thursday, even when paired with the Department of Justice’s targeting of “fraudulent birth tourism schemes,” isn’t enough to keep foreigners from exploiting “our laws while treating children as commodities.”

“Your decision to prohibit international surrogacy is an important step, but more can and should be done to deter bad actors by eliminating the incentives that facilitate this practice,” the Trump-backed Senate candidate wrote in a letter obtained by The Federalist.

Surrogacy denies children’s natural rights to life, to a mother and father, and to freedom from commodification; exploits vulnerable women; and creates reproduction loopholes for pedophiles and other bad actors unfit to be parents.

More imminently for the president, America’s international rent-a-womb industry is dominated by foreigners — many inhabitants of the nation’s sworn enemy country — to secure a child with full American citizenship. The citizenship benefits for a child born to a surrogate on American soil and then shipped overseas include key documentation like a birth certificate, passport, and Social Security number that make foreigners’ pathway to U.S. citizenship cheaper and easier.

Hageman cited the story of Kyla Simpson as evidence that surrogacy “arrangements are planned and coordinated by foreign nationals before they ever set foot in the United States, with U.S. surrogacy agencies facilitating the process.” Simpson gestated three babies and raised them for months, even navigating one of their deaths due to respiratory complications, after the Chinese man who commissioned their creation failed to pick them up at birth.

“This case, along with the broader challenges posed by cultural differences, language barriers, and conflicting state laws, underscores the need for federal action,” Hageman wrote. “Your decision to prohibit international surrogacy is an important step, but more can and should be done to deter bad actors by eliminating the incentives that facilitate this practice.”

Under the The Immigration and Nationality Act, Hageman noted, Trump has “broad authority to restrict the entry of classes of foreign nationals whose admission you determine would be ‘detrimental to the interests of the United States.’” Not only that, but Hageman encouraged the White House to prompt the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to “deny visas” to people known to take advantage of “international surrogacy
arrangements involving U.S. clinics and surrogates, including plans to commission or collect a
resulting child.”

“Such individuals could also be made permanently ineligible for entry under any visa category, asylum, refugee status, temporary protected status, lottery- or family-based immigration, or petitions for lawful permanent residency or U.S. citizenship, including through a future marriage to an American citizen,” Hageman added.

In addition to curbing foreigners participation in international surrogacy, Hageman suggested Trump also “hold fertility organizations and surrogacy agencies accountable for facilitating this practice.” She listed organizations like Surrogate First and Creative Family Connections that advertise birth tourism loopholes to their overseas clients and warned certain agencies “actively market these services to Asian clients.” As The Federalist previously reported, selling the promise of U.S. citizenship for foreigners’ babies, and eventually foreigners themselves, is noticeably profitable.

“Lawmakers have also identified more than 107 Chinese-owned surrogacy agencies in Southern California that reportedly cater almost exclusively to wealthy Chinese clients, with some linked to Chinese state-owned entities. Yet these agencies have remained in good standing with major U.S. fertility organizations, including ASRM, SART, RESOLVE, and SEEDS,” Hageman added.

[RELATED: Meet The Fertility Org Funding Dystopian Embryo Experiments Across America]

Hageman warned that groups such as ASRM have not only “failed to establish adequate standards or oversight to address these risks, including cases like Simpson’s” but actively undermines any attempt at safeguards by maintaining suspect relationships with “physicians and scientists of Chinese origin within and outside China” through its Chinese Special Interest Group.

“This relationship warrants scrutiny, particularly given the broader national security
and immigration implications of international commercial surrogacy,” Hageman wrote.

Jordan Boyd is an award-winning staff writer at The Federalist and producer of “The Federalist Radio Hour.” Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.