Interesting story. We usually just hear about the "anchor babies" born to illegals. But it's also happening with legal visitors on a visa too. I wonder how much this practice adds to our population? Then again, if it adds more young citizen workers, that helps the seniors here on SS or Medicare. But if it later adds their parents too, who knows the effect. I don't see that the parents would be elgible for SS or Medicare since they didn't pay in, but I'm not sure what other programs they might be elgible for.
When Liu Li boarded a plane for the United States, she had a little bit of makeup on, was wearing a loose dress, and had her hair up. She tried to hold her handbag in front of her belly in a natural way, just as the middleman had taught her. She was trying to look as calm as any wealthy Chinese lady would look when travelling abroad. But Liu Li couldn't help feeling terribly nervous: she was six months pregnant when she left for the United States, where she wanted to give birth to an American citizen.
Liu Li knew that going through customs would be a lot easier than obtaining a U.S. visa. In order to obtain the tourist visa that enabled her to go to America for the delivery, she had to carefully choose her clothes, and spend a lot of time practicing her walking and interview techniques. She memorized a host of details about her hotel booking and about famous sight-seeing spots so as to convince the Embassy officer that she was just another Chinese woman going shopping in the States.
The temptation of a 'born in the USA' child
Giving birth to a child abroad is not a privilege reserved to the stars and the very wealthy. An increasing number of expectant middle-class parents also fancy giving their children passports that they can feel proud of. "The return on investment is higher than robbing a bank," the consultancy agent tells women such as Liu. When Chinese children are born in America, they automatically become U.S. citizens. Once they reach 21, their parents will be able to apply for green cards and emigrate.
Legal immigrants tend to actually help the economy since they tend to be smarter and more ambitious, but I don't know if that applies to babies since they aren't really making the decision here.
Busted!
Wouldn't it be funny if the Supreme Court eventually overrules itself and takes away birthhood citizenship like most of the developed world does?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
