Washington DC - President Donald Trump's administration will intensify its fight against so-called birth tourism, the US attorney general said Wednesday, a day after a Supreme Court ruling upholding birthright citizenship.
The predominantly conservative court on Tuesday overturned an executive order issued by Trump on the first day of his second term, decreeing that children born to parents in the US illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become US citizens.
But Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters on Wednesday that authorities would still target foreign women intending to give birth in the US so that their child would be an American citizen.
"From a Department of Justice standpoint, it's obviously focusing our prosecutors and our law enforcement partners on birthing tourism, and it's a booming industry, and it will continue. It will continue, given the Supreme Court's decision yesterday," Blanche told a news conference.
"There's other things that...the federal government can do in the in the visa process and the application process to try to minimize or limit the opportunity of folks coming here ... just to have a have a baby that can then be a US citizen," he added.
The Trump administration has highlighted so-called birth tourism, particularly from China, to justify its attempt to challenge birthright citizenship.
However, experts say it occurs relatively little compared to the more than 250,000 annual births of children to undocumented immigrants or temporary residents in the US.