As the Supreme Court is preparing to hear arguments on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, we all need to take a closer look at how this quasi-legal loophole in our immigration law is being used by hostile players to the detriment of the United States.
The Wall Street Journal has a shocking report on a billionaire Chinese videogame executive, Xu Bo, who has fathered over 100, yes, you read that right, 100 children, all of whom are U.S. citizens. Xu's extended family came to California's attention during a routine custody hearing.
Clerks working for family court Judge Amy Pellman were reviewing routine surrogacy petitions when they spotted an unusual pattern: the same name, again and again.
A Chinese billionaire was seeking parental rights to at least four unborn children, and the court’s additional research showed that he had already fathered or was in the process of fathering at least eight more—all through surrogates.
When Pellman called Xu Bo in for a confidential hearing in the summer of 2023, he never entered the courtroom, according to people who attended the hearing. The maker of fantasy videogames lived in China and appeared via video, speaking through an interpreter. He said he hoped to have 20 or so U.S.-born children through surrogacy—boys, because they’re superior to girls—to one day take over his business.
Several of his kids were being raised by nannies in nearby Irvine as they awaited paperwork to travel to China. He hadn’t yet met them, he told the judge, because work had been busy.
As it turns out, Mr. Xu is not alone in obeying the biblical admonition to "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth."
Another wealthy Chinese executive, Wang Huiwu, hired U.S. models and others as egg donors to have 10 girls, with the aim of one day marrying them off to powerful men, according to people close to the executive’s education company.
There are apparently dozens of companies specializing in multiple surrogate births by Chinese "parents" to women in the U.S. for what seems to be the sole purpose of creating citizenship. It seems like the booming surrogacy industry is a response to a crackdown on "birth hotels" operating in California, where Chinese women traveled for the purpose of having their kid born in the U.S. Surrogacy effectively bypasses State Department policies designed to limit birth tourism by restricting travel to the U.S. by pregnant women.
The Chinese are not alone in so-called "birth tourism," but they are unique in having raised the practice to an industrial scale. Several thousand Russian babies were birthed by the old-fashioned method in Miami, prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Each birth generates a U.S. citizen who can take up residence in the U.S. at some future time.
While at first blush, this can be distinguished from birthright citizenship because the surrogate mother is, presumably, American, it is nonetheless a variety of the practice. The surrogate mother will not appear on the child's final birth certificate, and as the surrogate mother gives up parental rights basically at birth, the "father" has participated in the process for the purpose of ensuring his "offspring" have U.S. citizenship.
This practice is not only morally corrupt, it presents a massive danger to national security.
The most obvious problem is that when these children, who were spawned in the U.S., return to China, we lose track of who they are. The passport issued in that name can be used by anyone. Though the Chinese babies born in California "birth hotels" may never return to the U.S., there is no reason to believe someone using that passport will not establish themselves here.
In the case of a regime loyalist like Mr. Xu, his 100-plus offspring could essentially buy Congressional seats and influence in state political parties because they have access to virtually unlimited cash, and, as U.S. citizens, even though they are domiciled outside the U.S., they can contribute to candidates under their own names or via PACs and "dark money" groups.
Many are opposing President Trump's executive order ending the practice of granting citizenship to nearly anyone born in the U.S. Most of the opposition is based on a personal animus toward Trump and a Hollywood version of the 14th Amendment rather than facts; see Stopping Trump's Birthright Citizenship Ban May Not Be the Slam Dunk the Left Thinks – RedState.
BACKGROUND:
Can Trump End Birthright Citizenship? Supreme Court Says It Will Decide – RedState
Why the Supreme Court May Reject Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order – RedState
There is much more at stake here than a fantasy version of the children of immigrants becoming citizens. Through birthright citizenship, we are allowing hostile nations to create thousands, or tens of thousands, of valid U.S. passports for use by their intelligence services. We are permitting hostile powers to participate in our elections using nearly unlimited funds legally. Birthright citizenship, as practiced by Chinese billionaires, opens the door to genuine "Manchurian candidates" from places other than Somalia to win elective office and gain access to highly classified information by virtue of their citizenship and position.
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