The head of a Miami agency that arranges for foreign nationals to give birth in the United States refused to answer any questions from Congress this week, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a House Oversight Committee hearing on birth tourism.
Dr. Wladimir Lorentz, founder and chief medical officer of Have My Baby in Miami, appeared before the committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, chaired by Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX). Lorentz told Gill upfront that he would decline to answer every question because he is currently the subject of a federal investigation.
“On the advice of counsel, I will respectfully decline to answer any questions touching the subject matter of a pending federal investigation on the grounds that a truthful answer may tend to incriminate me,” Lorentz said.
Lorentz added that his refusal to testify should not be read as an admission of wrongdoing.
“Nothing in my appearance here today and nothing in my declining to answer questions should be understood as a concession on the merits of the ongoing investigation,” he said.
Gill opened a congressional probe into Have My Baby in Miami and other birth tourism agencies in May. At the time, he called out the company by name.
“Have My Baby in Miami — that’s the name of an actual company that is facilitating birth tourism into the United States, where foreigners come in on visas, have children, then leave so that their children can remain American citizens,” Gill said. “That’s a problem. The American people are sick of it, and my task force on the House Oversight Committee is going after these companies.”
How the scheme works
Birth tourism relies on the constitutional guarantee of citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Foreign parents enter on temporary visas — often tourist visas — deliver their child in an American hospital, then return home, leaving their child with U.S. citizenship. Decades later, that American-born child can sponsor the parents for green cards.
An estimated 33,000 U.S.-born children receive birthright citizenship this way every year. The practice is common among Turkish nationals in New York City, Chinese nationals in California, Russian nationals in Florida, and Middle Eastern nationals in Illinois.
Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer’s recent book, The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon, found more than 100 Chinese-owned birth tourism agencies operating in California alone. In 2019, the Department of Justice uncovered a similar scheme among Chinese nationals in California, where roughly 8,500 U.S.-born children were granted citizenship after their parents entered on tourist visas for the sole purpose of giving birth.
