A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies explains ways in which the United States can minimize birth tourism and for-sale citizenship.
America and Canada are the only major world powers that grants birthright citizenship.
About 20,000 to 26,000 mothers buy citizenship for their children by coming to America for a vacation while they are pregnant, CIS reported. Then they give birth to their babies, who immediately qualify for citizenship.
Some women follow the proper channels to receive visas to legally enter the United States, but they lie about their reason for visiting the country.
Other women enter the country as illegal aliens, with the sole purpose of gaining citizenship for their babies.
“The Center estimates that, in 2014, around 297,000 children were born to illegal aliens, costing up to $2.3 billion in Medicaid taxpayer funds,” the report said.
American fraudsters encourage these abuses of America’s immigration system.
Federal prosecutors charged 20 Americans in Southern California with profiting off of the birth tourism industry.
Companies called “YouWin USA” and “USA Happy Baby” accepted payments of up to $100,000 from foreigners–Chinese nationals in particular–in exchange for housing as well as techniques to lie to American immigration officials about their reason for visiting the United States.
In America, birthright citizenship has existed for more than 100 years, and it is difficult to address because of the text of the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
There are ways, however, to reduce birth tourism and the practice of selling citizenship without the arduous task of amending the Constitution.
The CIS report notes that President Donald Trump already took steps to end birth tourism by demanding that US consulates cease granting tourist visas to pregnant women.
But the report’s author, Kevin Berghuis, offers six more solutions to eliminate the birth tourism industry:
- Immigration agencies could record and analyze information about birth tourism, including statistics about “the nationalities of those who engage in birth tourism” and the effects of birth tourism on “medical workers in known birth tourism epicenters, such as Miami.”
- The Department of Health and Human Services, or other government agencies, could catalogue how many non-citizens give birth in hospitals and how much these services cost taxpayers.
- Immigration agencies could include more restrictions on visitor visas for pregnant women, and include questions about “pregnancy and intent to give birth.” Furthermore, Customs and Border Patrol agents could ask suspected birth tourists to take pregnancy tests upon entrance into the country.
- Congress could outlaw birth tourism and institute penalties to prevent the abusive practice.
- Congress could ban known birth tourists from entering the United States for a period of time.
- Hospitals could increase the cost for foreigners who birth their babies in the United States by instituting an “upfront deposit” for maternity care.
