The Lies That Support Birth Tourism

by Joe Guzzardi
April 5, 2011

The birth tourism scandal has finally reached the mainstream media. Yet multiple stories related to the recent closure of a San Gabriel (CA) birthing center and similar ongoing maternity services offered in New York’s Marmara Manhattan Hotel miss the big picture.

Journalists repeatedly refer to mothers-to-be who travel from overseas, check into a facility designed to cater to pregnant foreign nationals and deliver a newly born citizen child as acting within the law.

On its face, that’s true. Entering the United States on a valid tourist or “B-2” visa, keeping her visit to within the maximum six month period and giving birth are all legal. What’s illegal, and what fuels the birth tourism industry, is lying on a visa application. According to the State Department, any lie, fraud, perjury, or forgery on an immigration application or in an interview is grounds for criminal prosecution and revocation of any immigration benefit granted. Obviously, women in their final trimester are not coming to America to go to Disneyland. Equally clear is that they didn’t put down on their applications that their visit’s purpose is to “give birth”. They lied and therefore should have their “immigration benefits” revoked, pursuant to the federally binding document they signed.

Symbolically and fiscally, no “immigration benefit” is greater than American citizenship. Here from my personal family experience is one example of what it means to be a United States citizen. Because his mother is an American, my Guatemalan-born nephew holds a U.S. passport. He qualifies as a citizen under right of blood or, to use the legal term, jus sanguinis.

Recently, his high school class traveled from Guatemala to London via the Miami Airport.

Upon disembarking in Miami, customs officials directed U.S. passport holders toward one line; Central Americans to another. Americans were waived through with a minimum of delay. Central Americans were less fortunate. They were subject to lengthy checks and inspections. Among immigration analysts, jus sanguinis is a non-controversial practice reserved mostly for military, diplomatic and business executives whose children are born while they are on assignment.

Jus sanguinis’ controversial opposite is jus solis, citizenship conferred to children born through the circumstance, often contrived, of the mother’s presence in the United States. Included in jus solis are the children of birth tourists or as cynics refer to them “obstetric tourists”.

For jus solis children and their parents, they hit the jackpot. Throughout his American lifetime, a child born in the United States whether his mother sneaks across the border or signs up for a $20,000 tourist package, benefits could accrue up to several hundred thousand dollars in taxpayer subsidies. While it’s impossible to quantify the exact total amount, K-12 education alone, based on a conservative $10,000 per student per annum in California, will add up to $130,000 by the end of a child’s senior year. English language instruction, if necessary, increases the bottom line.

Upon graduation, citizen students can apply for in-state tuition at California’s prestigious university system. For a modest $12,000 a year, enrollment at University of California campuses will lead to a college diploma to be used to compete with other Americans in the tight job market.

Ultimately, jus solis children can petition their overseas parents and other family members to join them. The elderly and infirm among them can apply for Supplemental Security Income. In time, the children, the parents and the extended family could collect Social Security benefits and be eligible for Medicare.

I’ve looked hard for any advantages that might accrue to Americans from giving automatic birthright citizenship. I can’t find a single one.

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Joe Guzzardi has written editorial columns—mostly about immigration and related social issues – since 1986. He is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and his columns have frequently been syndicated in various U.S. newspapers and websites. He can be reached at [email protected].