Dr. Wladimir Lorentz, the founder and Chief Medical Officer of the birth tourism business “Have My Baby in Miami,” repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a hearing in the House of Representatives Tuesday to avoid self incrimination.
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“On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer the question on the grounds that a truthful answer may tend to incriminate me,” Lorentz stated when Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) asked him how many babies his birth tourism business had delivered to foreign nationals in the United States.
Gill said that Lorentz’s website, which is no longer online, had boasted more than 2,000 babies. The previously “booming” birth tourism business had said on its website that it offered “complete logistical support” to foreign nationals who want to exploit the United States immigration system, Local10.com reported last October.
Lorentz is the primary target of a House Oversight Committee investigation into birth tourism, a practice where foreign nationals travel to the United States on temporary visas to give birth, thereby granting their children automatic birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
Lorentz has argued that advertising birth services to foreigners is not inherently illegal, but the House investigation aims to determine if the business was exploiting U.S. citizenship laws to circumvent immigration rules, with potential referrals to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.
“Birth tourism should appall every American citizen. It subverts the rule of law, cheapens American citizenship, and undermines our sovereignty as a nation. A growing industry is openly marketing American citizenship to foreign nationals who travel here for the express purpose of giving birth on U.S. soil. This abuse of our immigration system also raises serious national security concerns, particularly given the number of birth tourists traveling from adversarial nations like China and Russia. Our Task Force is demanding answers from the companies profiting from this scheme and examining how Congress can act quickly to shut it down,” said Chairman Gill in a press release, last week.
The Committee sent a letters to Lorentz and Dr. Julio Cesar Novoa, Medical Director and Owner of El Paso-based “International Maternity Services” on May 14, requesting all documents and information on their companies’ marketing and advertising, service agreements, and related medical tourism packages.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued a subpoena to Lorentz on August 26, requiring his testimony Tuesday before the “Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses Task Force.”
During the hearing, Task Force members examined the prevalence of birth tourism schemes in the United States, targeting firms accused of exploiting birthright citizenship by marketing their maternity services to foreign expectant mothers.
While questioning Lorentz, Chairman Gill cited the “Have My Baby in Miami” website, which told foreign nationals, “Now the dream of having a child in the United States is closer to reality than you ever imagined.”
When he asked Lorentz if that was his website, the doctor again pleaded the Fifth.
“Thousands of foreigners travel to all parts of the country … for the sole purpose of giving birth in the United States to obtain U.S. citizenship for their child,” said Gill.
Members also analyzed the national security threat birth tourism poses on the U.S. and how this scheme undermines U.S. sovereignty.
When asked whether his birth tourism business has helped Chinese Communist Party members, Tren de Aragua, MS-13 and other narco-terrorists secure American citizenship for their children, Lorentz again pleaded the Fifth.
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In his opening statement, Gill emphasized how extensive the birth tourism industry has become in recent years.
“Decades ago, even Democrat leaders such as Harry Reid believed that the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors should not be granted automatic citizenship,” the Texas Republican stated. “Since then, the view of the Democrat party has radically changed.”
Now, through misguided policies and exploitation of our immigration laws through fraud and other criminal activity, our country has become a hub of birth tourism.
Thousands of foreigners travel to all parts of the country—to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, to El Paso, to Miami—for the sole purpose of giving birth in the United States to obtain U.S. citizenship for their child.
Gill said there are few reliable statistics available on the annual numbers of birth tourists, but according to a Center for Immigration Studies estimate in 2020, “the annual number of birth tourists could be as high as 20,000 to 26,000 a year.”
The congressman also raised serious concerns over national security threats posed by citizens of China who were born in the U.S. but have no allegiance to the country.
“Between 750,000 to 1.5 million Chinese nationals living outside the U.S. may have acquired American citizenship simply by being born here,” he said.
These are children, who may have no connection or allegiance to the United States of America, and who have been raised under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.
When they grow up, like any other citizen, they will be eligible for government service, election to public office, voting in American elections, social service benefits, and the ability to extend immigration benefits and a path to citizenship to their parents, spouses, and other family members.
In a 6-3 decision in June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, striking down President Trump’s executive order that sought to deny citizenship to children born to parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States.
President Trump called the decision “too bad for our Country” and a “miscarriage of justice,” and announced he would petition the Court for an immediate rehearing.
Simultaneously, the president urged Congress to pass legislation to end birthright citizenship, asserting that no constitutional amendment was required to do so.
Trump signed two new executive orders—Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship and Ending Birth Tourism—on August 6, targeting narrower categories such as “alien enemies,” terrorists, and “birth tourism” that arguably fall outside the Court’s protection. A federal judge has since declined to block this second order, though legal challenges continue.
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