News

Apr 20, 2010

An immigration reform think tank is praising a bill introduced in the U.S. House that would close a loophole that allows foreign women who are pregnant to come to the U.S. as "tourists" long enough to have their babies, who are then granted American citizenship automatically.

Because of that loophole in the 14th Amendment, foreign nationals are in essence permitted to unilaterally decide who can be a citizen of the U.S. That amendment was ratified in 1868 to make sure that citizenship rights were guaranteed to the children of freed slaves after the Civil War. But in recent years it has been misinterpreted and used as an incentive to illegal immigration and violation by those already in the country illegally.

Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), says it is unfortunate that U.S. lawmakers up to this point have failed to change the law.

"So we ended up with the situation where anyone who sneaks into the country or is already here illegally or here as a tourist legally or whatever has a baby -- [and] that kid automatically is considered a U.S. citizen," he explains.

The CIS director considers it outrageous that a "birth tourism" industry operates in the open to facilitate the anchor-baby business. He notes that there are hospitals in Tucson, Arizona, that actually advertise in Mexico for business.

"Now what they're doing is drawing people into the United States to have U.S. citizen kids," he continues. "We're allowing that, rather than making it clear that if you're coming here to give birth, you're going to be turned down for a visa."

The United States is the largest of about three dozen countries in the world that still grant birthright citizenship. Others include Brazil, Canada, India, Pakistan, and Spain.