(Tom McFeely/National Catholic Register) — The core argument advanced by President Donald Trump and other opponents of birthright citizenship is that it has facilitated widespread abuse of U.S. immigration laws — an argument that has been dramatically reinforced in recent years through the utilization of IVF and surrogacy procedures by foreigners.
A research paper published last year by the Heritage Foundation, titled “The New Face of Birth Tourism: Chinese Nationals, American Surrogates, and Birthright Citizenship,” details how the lax U.S. framework governing surrogacy has allowed foreign citizens — particularly Chinese nationals — to “rent a womb” from an American woman to gestate a baby created via in vitro fertilization.
And, courtesy of the currently prevailing legal interpretation of the birthright-citizenship provisions of the14th Amendment, U.S.-born children resulting from these IVF and surrogacy arrangements automatically gain U.S. citizenship, even if neither of their biological parents are American citizens or U.S. residents.
This high-tech “birthright tourism” adds another moral and legal dimension to a simmering dispute between the U.S. bishops and the Trump administration over the latter’s controversial immigration policies. While some bishops have spoken out forcefully against Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship, how the current laws are being used in this instance runs contrary to the Church’s teaching against both IVF and surrogacy.
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