Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was hit with blowback for claiming that Chinese women were racing into the U.S. days before giving birth so their children would be American citizens.
President Donald Trump's DHS chief appeared Wednesday morning on "Fox and Friends," where he made the baseless claims following a Supreme Court decision to strike down an executive order limiting birthright citizenship.
"They come into the United States or one of our territories to simply give birth," Mullin told Fox News. "They'll come in and the eighth month, maybe one, two, three weeks left, give birth here, and then they move back to China and raise a person under the communist regime."
Co-host Brian Kilmeade suggested that pregnant foreigners should be prohibited from traveling to the U.S., and Mullin seemingly agreed, but critics questioned their facts.
"We know this is not happening, because no airline in the world would permit it," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. "And even if someone managed to hide a pregnancy that far along, CBP officials at airports already have the discretion to turn away a tourist in that situation; no new laws or policies needed."
"No federal agency has produced a definitive count of how many women travel to the United States specifically for birth tourism," noted immigration lawyer Allen Orr Jr. Researchers generally conclude that birth tourism represents a small fraction of all births in the United States.
"It's important to remember, Fox News paid out $787 million for spreading lies about the 2020 election," reminded Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
"The plumber knows NOTHING, about women, about Chinese women, about pregnancy.... This plumber is FEARMONGERING," shamed popular X user Charlie Harris.
"Trump has been allowing pregnant Russian women to stay at his properties for birth tourism for years. Years. It’s ok for Russians!" pointed out Bluesky user SJ Worrier, linking to a PBS report on the topic.
"There's been reporting on the agencies that facilitate wealthy Chinese and Russian (and other?) women coming to give birth," added historian Betsy Cazden. "It's not large numbers and has little if any impact on anyone else. Different issue from Guatemalan moms living in the US without documents."