Births to tourist mothers on Saipan, the largest island in the US Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific, have fallen by about 92% from their 2018 peak, amid tighter entry procedures for Chinese travellers and growing debate in the United States over what is known as “birth tourism” and the citizenship granted to people born on US territory.
The figures show that such births fell from 581 in 2018 to 58 in 2024, and then to just 47 in 2025. Local figures say the data do not support portraying Saipan at present as a major hub for birth tourism, although some Chinese women continue to arrive before giving birth and return to China after their children are born.
Legal status attracted Chinese mothers
The island attracted some Chinese mothers because of its legal status as part of US territory, which grants children born there US citizenship at birth under the applicable rules. The Northern Mariana Islands also have a special entry system that allows Chinese nationals, under specific conditions, to enter without a traditional US visa.
The special entry route helped the activity grow in previous years. Data from the Migration Policy Institute indicate that births to tourist mothers rose from fewer than 10 before the special entry arrangements were introduced to about 600 in 2018, before falling sharply after the rules were tightened.
Under the programme currently in place, eligible Chinese travellers undergo pre-screening and face stricter entry requirements, alongside limits on the length of their stay. Previous rules allowed visitors to remain for longer periods, before the duration was reduced to 14 days as part of measures to narrow the route that had previously helped birth tourism flourish.
Security concerns go beyond immigration
Despite the sharp fall in numbers, the debate over the phenomenon has shifted from immigration and citizenship issues to security considerations, drawing on Saipan’s geographical proximity to China and Taiwan and the existence of entry arrangements specifically for Chinese nationals. Some US officials and politicians believe the system could represent a security loophole open to exploitation.
Some critics have gone so far as to discuss the possibility that children who acquire US citizenship in Saipan could eventually enter relationships or networks used for illicit purposes. This argument gave rise to the description “future spies”, used in an investigation by the British newspaper The Telegraph, based on officials and experts who spoke to it about the phenomenon and the concerns surrounding it.
No evidence of organised intelligence activity
But these concerns do not constitute evidence of organised intelligence activity. There is no published evidence that the Chinese government is running birth tourism in Saipan to have children who are prepared to work as spies, or that children born on the island are enrolled in any intelligence programme.
What has been raised is limited to a debate over the possible misuse of immigration and citizenship routes, which has widened as tensions between Washington and Beijing have increased. The US administration entered the debate in August 2026, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting “birth tourism”. Trump argued that foreigners entering the United States to have children who receive citizenship constituted exploitation of the immigration rules in force.
But the US judiciary temporarily halted implementation of the order. On 2 September 2026, federal judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary order blocking the application of the new restrictions on birthright citizenship in the case before her, citing Supreme Court precedents concerning citizenship acquired at birth.
Calls for tighter oversight of commercial activities
In Saipan, lawmakers are calling for stricter oversight of commercial activities linked to birth tourism. Local figures, however, stress that the cases recorded over the past two years are far below 2018 levels, as the island seeks to balance protecting its tourism economy with responding to concerns about entry and immigration.
The issue brings together mothers crossing the ocean in the hope of securing US passports for their children, an island dependent on tourism, and federal authorities taking a stricter security-focused view of entry arrangements. The description of the children as “future spies” remains an expression of circulating fears and assumptions, not a fact established by published evidence.
