Rep. Brandon Gil talks about federal probe into ‘birth tourism’ in South Florida

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Brandon Gil said a Local 10 News investigation was “the original source” behind an ongoing federal probe into a business suspected of “birth tourism” in South Florida.

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The Republican from Texas, who introduced legislation to restrict birthright citizenship, serves on the House committees on the Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform, and the Budget.

“The goal is to make a criminal referral to the Department of Justice,” Gil said about a House committee’s ongoing investigation.

Local 10 News first reported on a concierge service by Dr. Wladimir Lorentz, the pediatrician behind Have My Baby in Miami, in October.

“You cannot come into the United States and get an immigration Visa for the sole purpose of giving birth,” Gil said.

The North Miami Beach-based company’s advertising promises to “love helping you be a mom in the United States.”

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Under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, babies born in the U.S. are automatically granted birthright citizenship, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Congressional investigators recently sent a letter to Lorentz warning that “willfully misrepresenting one’s intentions to enter the country on a temporary visitor visa is a violation of current law and considered visa fraud.”

The U.S. State Department has warned that traveling to the U.S. with the primary purpose of giving birth to obtain citizenship is an impermissible use of a B-2 tourist visa.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers can deny pregnant women entry after inquiring about “sufficient medical insurance to cover any medical necessities while” in the U.S., and about the intent to return home. The U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted commercial “birth tourism networks.”

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“I think the evidence, at least to me, seems quite clear that if you’re advertising birth services in foreign countries, trying to compel people or trying to encourage people to come into the United States in order to give birth,” Lorentz said. “You’re doing something that you shouldn’t be doing.”

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Lorentz couldn’t be reached for comment.