For years, critics warned that America’s immigration system had created an enormous loophole: foreign nationals could travel to the United States, give birth, and leave with something far more valuable than a hospital souvenir—a child with American citizenship.

Now, businesses are openly marketing that possibility to prospective mothers overseas.

One Chinese birth-tourism company, Mifubaby Group, recently celebrated the Supreme Court’s June 30 decision in Trump v. Barbara with a blunt message on its website: “US Supreme Court decision finalized: Birth tourism babies still become citizens!”

The company, also known as Meifu Jia’er, advertises lavish accommodations in Irvine, California, under the banner “American Postnatal Care Center.”

The prices are hardly modest.

Packages listed on the website included a $43,800 two-bedroom, one-bath villa and a $33,800 mid-range suite.

“With the increasing demand for childbirth in the United States, more and more expectant mothers in China are planning to give birth there,” the company said.

And Mifubaby is hardly alone.

Another Chinese company, Kangbixing, advertises packages for “overseas medical treatment for childbirth in the U.S.” Its website features a pregnant Chinese woman standing against an American flag while promoting American hospitals and recommended obstetricians.

This is not merely a theoretical debate over immigration policy.

There is an industry built around it.

The Supreme Court ruling cited by these companies concerns whether children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present remain entitled to citizenship under the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause.

President Donald Trump attempted to change that policy through Executive Order 14160, which sought to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants and certain temporary visa holders.

The order was ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.

For the birth-tourism industry, that decision was apparently worth celebrating.

For immigration hawks, it was a warning.

Because once citizenship becomes something that can effectively be packaged together with a hotel room, medical care and a trip across the border, the incentive structure becomes difficult to ignore.

And Chinese nationals are not the only ones involved.

Women from Mexico, Turkey, Russia and Nigeria have also been identified among those participating in birth-tourism arrangements.

The practice has even appeared in advertising aimed directly at potential customers in Mexico.

A Texas hospital recently promoted “childbirth packages in South Texas” through a Spanish-language billboard south of the U.S. border. The advertised prices ranged from $3,950 for a natural birth to $5,525 for a cesarean section.

The billboard directed prospective customers to a website promoting childbirth in Texas. That website is no longer operational.

But the controversy did not disappear with the website.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott accused the hospital of engaging in birth tourism and called for an investigation.

Trump then weighed in with a warning that was unmistakably blunt.

“Billions of dollars will be illegally made by this SCAM, with Citizenship going to anyone willing to pay,” Trump wrote in a July 8 Truth Social post. He warned that the practice could become a pathway for entire families to follow and concluded with a message that captures the America First position in six words:

“AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP IS NOT FOR SALE!”

That is the heart of the issue.

The United States is one of the most desirable countries in the world in which to have a child, and American citizenship carries enormous advantages. Birth tourism companies know that. Their advertisements are not subtle about the value they are selling.

The question for Americans is whether the country's immigration laws should allow that value to become a commercial product.

There is a profound difference between welcoming people who come legally, build lives here, contribute to their communities and eventually earn citizenship—and creating a business model around traveling to America specifically to secure citizenship for a child.

And when companies overseas are advertising tens of thousands of dollars in packages designed around giving birth on American soil, it becomes harder to pretend the incentive does not exist.

The Supreme Court has spoken on the constitutional question presented in the case. But the broader political fight is far from finished.

Trump has spent years arguing that America's immigration system must serve Americans first, not foreign industries looking for ways to exploit loopholes in American law.

Birth tourism puts that philosophy to the test.

Because citizenship should mean something. It should represent a genuine connection to the United States—not simply another premium feature that can be added to a foreign travel package.

The message from Trump and immigration hawks is simple: America welcomes people who come here lawfully and honestly. But American citizenship should never become a product that can be purchased by the wealthy from abroad.