Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Radio New Zealand Pacific reports that US Pacific territories are under the microscope as Washington is launching a task force to fight birth tourism, where foreigners come to the country to have children.

Key hotspots for birth tourism include Guam and the Northern Marianas.
The US State Department says the task force will review the birth tourism space — and either kick out those who come in for it, or shut the gate on them when they try.

So far it says it has revoked more than 600 US visas from foreign nationals across the globe, calling birth tourism a pervasive practice.

Republicans have targeted special visa waivers allowing Chinese nationals to travel to these territories.

Samoa News notes that in American Samoa, the Fono has touched upon this issue when discussing the high influx of foreigners into the Territory — especially Asians. 

However, Samoa citizens are also very much a part of ‘birth tourism’, that is: Giving birth in American Samoa for US national status; and, then mother and child returning to Samoa within months, if not weeks. 

Local lawmakers have discussed solutions such as the newborn child not being entitled to birthright status if both parents are foreigners and are not legal residents. The child would then have a choice of either of their parent’s citizenship.

According to a Reuters report this month, US President Donald Trump has recently signed two executive orders in a new but narrower attempt to curtail birthright citizenship, renewing his challenge to a provision of the US Constitution after the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort.

Limiting birthright citizenship has been one of the top priorities in the Republican president's crackdown on immigration, with the White House taking particular aim at what it calls "birth tourism," in which pregnant foreigners travel to the US to give birth.

After his 30 June setback in the Supreme Court, Trump called on Congress to act, but on Thursday (local time) he opted for executive orders, which set policy but are not legally binding. 

The Supreme Court said Trump's earlier effort to restrict birthright citizenship was unconstitutional.

"That practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned. What that means is that no one in the world is anymore allowed to obtain a visa for this fraudulent purpose," White House aide Stephen Miller said at the Thursday signing ceremony in the Oval Office.

The Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration, estimated in an analysis in 2020 that between 20,000- 25,000 mothers came to the US for birth tourism in a year-long period between 2016- 2017.

There were 3.6 million births in the US in 2025.

The executive orders also limit the rights of children born to foreign government employees in the US and children of people who are classified as alien enemies.

The orders could also affect people born in US territories, should Congress enact a proposed law to end automatic citizenship there.

Trump's new orders are likely to be challenged in court.

The 14th Amendment has long been interpreted as guaranteeing citizenship for babies born in the US with only narrow exceptions such as the children of foreign diplomats or members of an enemy occupying force.

"This was done for a different reason. This was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves, and what's happening now?" Trump said in his White House remarks on Thursday.

There are no official figures tallying the number of foreigners who come to the US for the explicit purpose of giving birth and obtaining citizenship for their children, or the cost to taxpayers.

In any case, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the Supreme Court ruling that the authors of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in the land.

"Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. We keep that promise today," Roberts wrote.

The 14th Amendment provision known as the Citizenship Clause states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

No US law outright bars birth tourism, but a federal regulation implemented in 2020 during Trump's first term prohibits using temporary tourist and business visas for the primary purpose of obtaining US citizenship for a newborn. People who engage in birth tourism schemes could be prosecuted for fraud or other related crimes.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Fono will pick up the issue again, after it completes it review of the FY 2027 budget.