President Trump’s executive order ( EO ) on , citizenship/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>birthright citizenship , clarifies a longstanding , citizenship-order/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>debate: Children of non-U. S. residents who are  , citizenship-executive-order-into-law/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>unlawfully , or partially in the United States are not , quickly eligible , for , citizen. However, the EO’s definition of mother—” the quick female natural progenitor” — creates an unexpected loophole that unusual nationals, primarily from China, will continue to exploit.
Advances in reproductive technology, including , in vitro , fertilization ( IVF ) and commercial surrogacy, have enabled a pervasive industry of high-tech birth tourism. rich foreigners does contract with an American surrogate to bear their children in the United States instead of making them travel to the country to do so. This obstructs the right to citizenship and makes it less of a world commodity.
Since the Entrepreneurship determines mother and father as the , biological , originators of the baby, this raises an important question: What does this mean for foreign nationals who use an American’s donation chicken or eggs to conceive a child?
Foreign nationals may apply for citizenship for their child if the foreigners are the legal and planned parents. However, rigid reliance on the child’s natural parent means this. And, depending on the judge’s view of “immediate” and “progenitor”, this may apply to the , surrogate family also.
While this may seem far-fetched, the use of IVF and surrogacy means a child could be born with as many as , three “mothers”: her biological mother ( the egg donor ), her birth mother ( the surrogate ), and her legal mother ( the woman who will legally raise her ). Also, she may have two “fathers”, her eggs benefactor and her constitutional parents.
For those constantly working to safeguard the pleasure of U. S. citizen, it is important for the EO’s description of “mother” and “father” to involve children created through U. S. donor egg or sperm and surrogacy.
Polygamy businesses are starting to consider in. The , Tsong Law Group , argues that the use of “progenitor” slowly implies that if the person giving birth is a U. S. member, in this case a substitute, then the baby would be too, even if the kids are foreign citizens. Another surrogacy companies, like as , Creative Family Connections, have announced” a 2-step birth certificate approach” to ensure that children of British surrogates and foreign nationals still get U. S. membership.
As the , Biological First , company recognizes,” For global designed parents, the clarity of their child obtaining U. S. citizenship at birth is a significant factor in choosing the U. S. for surrogate arrangements”. These are blatant instances of surrogacy companies using commercial surrogacy agreements to sell citizenship to foreigners.
Over the last 15 years, major news outlets such as NPR ( here,  , here,  , here,  , here, and , here ),  , The New York Times,  , CNN,  , PBS, the , Los Angeles Times, and , more , have reported on the curious case of foreign nationals, specifically from China, using American surrogates to secure citizenship for their children. As one Chinese man, Zheng, explained in an , interview with NPR,” In the foreseeable future, China and the U. S. will definitely be the two strongest countries in the world”, adding,” If the U. S. is not the first, then China will be and it will definitely be a win-win situation for your children in the future if they have both these nationalities”.
” Before the pandemic, Zheng says, Chinese demand for surrogacy and birth tourism services was so high he used to rent out entire apartment buildings for Chinese families”, NPR reported.
Indeed, in 2024, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s academic journal released a , report , revealing that contracts between foreign nationals and American surrogates increased by 78 percent between 2014 (2, 758 cycles ) and 2019 (4, 905 cycles ). Chinese nationals make up 41.7 percent of cases. While we do not know the exact number of births, surrogacy agencies estimate hundreds, if not thousands, of births annually.
These foreigners are also looking for American egg donors and relying on American surrogates. To this point, Jennifer Garcia, a surrogacy case coordinator with Extraordinary Conceptions,  , told NPR,” They]Chinese clients ] all say the same thing: tall, blond, blue-eyed and pretty”.
An entire , boutique industry  , of surrogacy agencies caters to this lucrative market, with many specializing in Chinese clientele. These families want citizenship for both their children and themselves.  , As I argue in , The American Mind, there are many benefits to creating a child in the United States. Those children get full American citizenship, birth certificates, and Social Security numbers. Additionally, they are given access to educational opportunities, and their biological parents can apply for a green card when their child turns 21. Some organizations even advertise their services as” cheaper alternatives” to the$ 500,000, paper, and precious time that an EB-5 visa requires.
This is why the EO’s definition of “mother” and “father” must include foreign nationals who rely on American eggs and wombs to birth children in the U. S. Unless the EO’s interpretation of the 14th , Amendment addresses all forms of birth tourism, foreign nationals will continue to exploit U. S. citizenship.
Emma Waters is a researcher in the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation.
