Chances are, when most Americans think about immigration, the first thing that comes to mind — justifiably so — is the Biden-Harris administration's intentionally caused illegal alien crisis along the US-Mexican border. Next up: the increasing number of illegals crossing the US-Canadian border.
While the above crises continue, including child trafficking and the illegal importation of deadly fentanyl, Chinese citizens continue to exploit the US birthright citizenship law, which they've done for decades.
In the past, the Chinese have exploited US birthright laws by traveling to Saipan, Hong Kong (before it was "rejoined" with Communist China). Today, known as the "birth tourism" industry, pregnant Chinese women travel to the U.S. territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) without a visa in order to give birth and claim birthright citizenship for their newborns.
It's time for the United States government to put an end to it.
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany is raising concerns about the rampant industry, which he says is now operating inside the U.S. Tiffany raised the concerns at a recent U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee hearing.
Since 2009, Communist Chinese passport holders have been permitted to sidestep the U.S. visa requirements to enter the northern Mariana islands through categorical parole.
There are more children being born via birth tourism on the Northern Mariana Islands right now than there are domestic children being born. They don't even have to have a visa to come in here.
Tiffany was referring to a parole program created by the Obama administration. And the notion that there are more (Chinese) babies being born than there are domestic births on the Northern Mariana Islands is insane — made doubly insane by the fact that Mariana citizens can only obtain temporary visas to visit the United States, and only under various criteria.
The Pacific Island Times reported in 2017:
It’s not new, but ‘birth tourism’ is a growing CNMI industry
Saipan— Birth tourism is a hot issue once again after the Federal Bureau of Investigation was tipped off by a local doctor to an alleged large scale operation on the island.
Birth tourism has long been an underground industry in the CNMI, with pregnant Chinese women flocking to Saipan to give birth that automatically provides U.S. citizenship to their new-born child. Most of these women leave the CNMI after childbirth and receipt of their baby’s U.S. passport.
Early in the morning or late in the afternoon, groups of pregnant Chinese women can be seen walking along the Beach Road Pathway to exercise their legs since this is one of the prenatal activities that helps in having an easier childbirth.
It has allegedly become a lucrative business in China where travel agencies were reportedly even offering tour packages to Saipan. From the airport, pregnant Chinese women are picked up and housed in an apartment already reserved for them.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) San Francisco Field Office program manager and public affairs liaison Frank Falcon was quoted by the Pacific Island Times:
Coming to the U.S. in order to give birth does not, in and of itself, render an individual inadmissible. There is no inadmissibility ground within the U.S. immigration law that prohibits the birth of a child in the U.S.
As with any traveler, CBP will examine whether or not the traveler is admissible. The intent to enter the U.S. must be consistent with the visa/entry documents presented for entry, including the requirement that the traveler not abandon foreign residence, has no intent to return, will be able to maintain status while in the U.S. and be able to provide for all attendant costs while in the U.S. (including medical and personal costs) and for return.
Whatever. Look, most of us understand that there isn't a US immigration law that prohibits non-citizens from giving birth in America. That's not the problem.
But what logic applies to the notion that if a non-citizen gives birth in this country, the newborn child automatically becomes a US citizen?
ALSO READ: Trump Vows to End Birthright Citizenship and Give 'Dreamers' a Way to Stay in the US
Legal arguments regarding the interpretation of the 14th Amendment aside, as far as I can tell, there is zero logic to justify birthright citizenship and even less logic to continue to allow the "birth tourism" industry to continue to thrive.
Then There's California
"Shockingly," California also has a birth tourism industry, which prompted the first Trump administration to bring federal criminal charges against operators and customers in 2019. Here's more:
In one case, 19 people were charged for their role in a “birthing homes” scheme operating across southern California. This involved Chinese nationals applying for visitor visas and lying about their trip details on their application, with the purpose of coming to give birth to obtain birthright citizenship for their baby.
Pregnant Chinese nationals involved in the scheme were directed to fly to Hawaii because it was easier to get through CBP checkpoints there, as opposed to Los Angeles, according to the indictments. Many Chinese mothers failed to pay the medical costs associated with their hospital births, and their debts were referred to collection, an investigation found.
ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) reported at the time:
The birth tourism operations not only committed widespread immigration fraud and engaged in international money laundering, they also defrauded property owners when leasing the apartments and houses used in their birth tourism schemes, according to indictments.
[...]
According to the indictments that charge the operators of the schemes, they coached their Chinese customers how to pass the U.S. Consulate interview in China by falsely stating that they were going to stay in the U.S. for only two weeks. Their clients were also coached to trick U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at ports of entry by wearing loose clothing that would conceal their pregnancies.
As first reported by The Center Square on October 24 of this year, more than 176,000 Chinese nationals have entered the country under the Biden administration, the greatest number in U.S. history. Go figure.
The Bottom Line
This is hardly a newsflash: We live in an increasingly dangerous world. From Islamist terrorists in the Middle East to unpredictable Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to Communist China and its continual attempts to undermine and weaken the United States, there's no question in the mind of a logical American that we must tighten U.S. immigration laws, eliminate loopholes, and keep those who would do us harm out of this country.
