ICE reportedly targets ‘birth tourism’ amid Trump’s attacks on birthright citizenship

As President Donald Trump seeks to end constitutionally backed birthright citizenship as part of his his racist anti-immigrant crackdown, the Department of Homeland Security is reportedly taking steps to target what his administration is calling “birth tourism.”

According to Reuters, an internal email sent around DHS last week indicates Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to target what it says are networks that help foreign women travel to the United States so their babies can have American citizenship. To be clear, that’s not illegal — a point Chief Justice John Roberts made to Solicitor General John Sauer during the Supreme Court oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case.

Per Reuters:

In an internal email sent Thursday and reviewed by Reuters, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered investigative agents around the country to focus on a new ‘Birth Tourism Initiative.’ The operation will seek to root out networks that help pregnant foreign nationals come to the U.S. to give birth so their children can receive citizenship, it said.

The email, which MS NOW has not independently confirmed, says ICE will target those who “exploit” legal immigration processes:

‘HSI is advancing efforts to protect the integrity of U.S. immigration and identification systems, specifically targeting fraudulent activities associated with birth tourism schemes,’ the email said. The agency said it would seek to disrupt ‘fraud, financial crimes, and organized facilitation networks that exploit lawful immigration processes.’

Tellingly, a DHS spokesperson acknowledged to Reuters that “the act of giving birth in the United States is not unlawful,” but they added that DHS “remains focused on identifying and addressing potential violations of federal law associated with these activities.”

This sounds like a ploy for the Trump administration to probe people’s reproductive activity, potentially acquire sensitive health information about immigrant groups they want to target and fuel bigoted fears about foreigners — primarily, nonwhite people — birthing children within U.S. borders.

While promoting rhetoric aligned with the racist “replacement theory,” Trump’s administration has sought to lower immigration levels and zeroed out the number of refugee settlements for nearly every group except white South Africans, whom the president has falsely said are the victims of genocide.

In other words, Trump is bolstering white South African immigration to the U.S. for the explicit purpose of allowing these people to continue their lineage, which, again, isn’t under any real threat in South Africa.

And everyone should keep this in mind as the administration derides so-called birth tourism.

Last month, PolitiFact published a report debunking claims that Trump and his allies have made about birthright citizenship and birth tourism. In light of this reported new initiative at ICE, it seems this explainer might come in handy for us all. Check it out here.

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