FAIR: Birthright citizenship costs taxpayers $150.7B annually

(The Center Square) – Birthright citizenship of immigrants' children is costing federal, state and local taxpayers $150.7 billion annually, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Half that amount covers education, with the rest spent on healthcare and nutritional assistance, according to FAIR.

Policy analysts warn that broad constitutional interpretations of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment have enabled foreign nationals to exploit legal loopholes through organized "birth tourism" and commercial surrogacy operations in states such as California, New York and Florida. Surrogacy operations are also common in Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory about 1,000 miles south of Japan.

"Misinterpretation has led to a number of unfortunate and really harmful unintended consequences, with birth tourism being sort of one of those unintended consequences of a misreading of the Constitution," said Mateo Forero, director of investigations at FAIR, who was interviewed by The Center Square.