The US Department of Justice on Tuesday directed federal prosecutors to prioritize investigations of so-called birth tourism schemes after the US Supreme Court rejected US President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the US.
US Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, told employees in a memo that people who travel to the US under “false pretenses” to give birth and secure citizenship for their child could be criminally charged under laws barring visa fraud, money laundering, identity theft and wire fraud.
“The Department of Justice will zealously protect the sanctity of United States citizenship by investigating and prosecuting those who fraudulently exploit our immigration system,” McDonald wrote in the memo, which was posted on social media.
Photo: AP
The directive came hours after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, struck down a Trump executive order seeking to prevent children born in the US from automatically becoming citizens if neither parent is a US citizen or a legal permanent resident.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored Tuesday’s decision, said Trump’s directive violated language in the US constitution’s 14th Amendment that guarantees citizenship to virtually anyone born in the US, with a few narrow exceptions.
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the US Civil War that ended slavery in the US, confers citizenship to those born in the US who are “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” There were narrow exceptions such as the children of foreign diplomats or members of an enemy occupying force.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote, adding that the authors of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in the land.
“We keep that promise today,” he wrote.
Ahead of the ruling, some experts had estimated that Trump’s directive could affect the legal status of as many as 250,000 babies born each year and could require the families of millions more to prove the citizenship status of their newborns.
“The court’s decision reaffirms a fundamental American promise — if you are born here, you are a citizen,” said American Civil Liberties Union national legal director Cecillia Wang (王德棻), who argued the case on behalf of the challengers at the Supreme Court.
“A president cannot change the constitution by executive fiat,” said Wang, the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants to the US.
In other rulings released on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that states can ban transgender student athletes from women’s sports teams and struck down more campaign finance limits.
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