Federal prosecutors got a new marching order on birth tourism the same day the Supreme Court rejected a White House bid to narrow birthright citizenship. The Justice Department told U.S. attorneys to prioritize schemes in which foreign nationals enter under false pretenses to secure citizenship for a newborn.
According to Reuters, assistant attorney general Colin McDonald circulated a June 30 memo hours after the 6-3 ruling. He said people who exploit the immigration system for citizenship could face charges under visa fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and wire fraud statutes.
How birth tourism enforcement is shifting
The memo is not a new statute. Instead, it reframes an old practice as a criminal priority after a constitutional setback. McDonald wrote that the department would “zealously protect the sanctity of United States citizenship” by investigating fraudulent exploitation of the immigration system.
Meanwhile, the directive tells prosecutors to work with the Department of Homeland Security. DHS had already launched a Birth Tourism Initiative in April, directing investigative agents to focus on the same schemes. As a result, the court loss did not end the administration’s campaign. It moved the fight from executive-order citizenship rules into case-by-case fraud charging.
What the Supreme Court ruling changed
The high court struck down a Trump executive order that sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States when neither parent is a citizen or lawful permanent resident. The ruling affirmed the longstanding rule that nearly all people born on U.S. soil are citizens.
However, Justice Clarence Thomas highlighted birth tourism concerns in dissent. The Justice Department had argued in court that birthright citizenship can encourage pregnant foreign nationals without longstanding U.S. ties to enter solely to obtain citizenship for a child. That argument now sits beside a criminal-enforcement memo rather than a nationwide citizenship rewrite.
Why agencies matter more than the headline
For the Government desk, the institutional story is the handoff. When a presidential order fails, agencies still control charging priorities, investigative tasking, and interagency coordination. A memo to all DOJ employees, posted publicly, signals that field offices should treat birth tourism as a standing fraud problem rather than a one-off political talking point.
Past cases often centered on visa fraud alone. McDonald noted that other statutes can also apply. Therefore, expect more multi-count indictments if agents can show false statements, money movement, or identity misuse around maternity travel packages.
What to watch next
Watch for DHS case referrals, charging documents that cite the new priority language, and whether U.S. attorney offices publish birth tourism statistics. Also watch whether defense counsel challenge the timing as political retaliation after the Supreme Court loss. Overall, the administration’s citizenship fight is now running through prosecutors and immigration agents, not only through the White House counsel’s office.