this has been going since 1960 ,
my 3 nephews were all born in California by this method
2 went to Havard University and gradruated
one is still at Oxford . UK
On May 18, 9:56 am, rst9 <
rst9w...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Birth Tourists: Going for the 14th Amendment
> Updated: 2013-05-17 10:46
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2013-05/17/content_16506471.htm
> By June Chang (China Daily)
>
> The city council in Arcadia, California, is cracking down on
> maternity- tourism businesses that are violating the law. Six to eight
> boarding houses have been closed in the past several months, and an
> additional 12 are under investigation. Santa Ana Inn is known to house
> pregnant women who are to give birth in the US. The hotel hasn't been
> cited for any violations. Photo by Walt Mancini / Courtesy of Pasadena
> Star-News
>
> Women from China are giving birth in California and getting US
> citizenship for their newborns, while authorities are cracking down on
> homes where they stay, June Chang reports from Los Angeles.
>
> Li lives in a boarding house in the affluent California city of
> Arcadia, about 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. She isn't
> alone. The other 29 units in her housing complex are either occupied
> or booked, all by Chinese women who are pregnant.
> Like Li,who declined to disclose her real name, they are in the US to
> get instant US citizenship under the 14th Amendment to the US
> Constitution for their newborns and to get around China's restrictive
> one-child policy, which doesn't bar having another child abroad.
>
> Though there are no official statistics on how many women come to the
> US to give birth, so-called maternity or birth tourism is legal as
> long as the woman has a valid tourist or business visa.
>
> Birth tourism has been taking place for years in many major US cities,
> and because of its proximity to Asia, it has become especially
> widespread in Southern California with the Los Angeles area as the
> epicenter. Last week, Los Angeles County inspectors cited 16 boarding-
> house owners for illegally operating them in residential zones and
> said they'll ultimately be shut down.
> A two to three-month stay at one of the houses in the Los Angeles area
> can range from $12,000 to $50,000, which includes lodging, meals,
> transportation, prenatal and nursery care and assistance in
> documentation preparation after the child is born.
>
> A deluxe package - with around-the-clock, one-on-one nursery services
> for the newborn, a personal beauty and fitness consultant, and
> seasonal dishes prepared by star chefs - can cost as much as $80,000.
>
> "The word-of-mouth of my old clients brings me new customers, mainly
> from Beijing and Shanghai," said a Chinese woman who runs the boarding
> house where Li is staying until she gives birth in June, and who
> declined to give her name. "You know, people there are rich these
> days."
>
> She said that this year only 30 percent of her clients are here for
> their first child. "The rest are for the second or even the third,"
> she said, adding all her clients come from the Chinese mainland.
>
> The increase in maternity tourism by Chinese stems in part from the US
> government relaxing visa rules for the Chinese in June 2008, as well
> as Chinese being wealthy enough to pay the cost. By issuing more
> tourist visas, the US was hopeful that deep-pocketed Chinese tourists
> could help revitalize the then sluggish economy.
>
> Automatic citizenship
>
> "All of a sudden, some shrewd Chinese expectant parents figured out
> that they can benefit from this [US] policy change," said Zhang Yong,
> an immigration attorney at a San Francisco-based law firm. "By
> manipulating contraception and pregnancy, and arranging travel plans
> accordingly, they can have their child born in the US and take
> advantage of the automatic citizenship."
>
> When Amy decided five years ago to travel to California from China on
> a tourist visa in her third trimester and give birth to her son Dylon,
> she believed the boy would later be grateful for her thoughtfulness.
>
> "He will sooner or later recognize the value and weight of his US
> birth certificate," said the 39-year-old manager for one of the
> nation's key players in the telecommunication industry.
>
> Amy, who also declined to disclose her real name, said she paid
> approximately $30,000 for her child-bearing trip to the US, which she
> called the "best investment" she has ever made.
>
> Amy remembers vividly being admitted to the labor and delivery unit at
> the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, on Dec 20, 2008. With Christmas
> a few days away, she said festive carols and decorations everywhere
> helped minimize her homesickness and loneliness and soothe the pain
> around her pelvic area.
>
> Prior to the hospital, she lived in a single-family house that had
> been converted to a boarding home, sharing the two-story, 3,000-square-
> foot building with eight other pregnant women and three staff members
> for two months.
>
> "I was all on my own," Amy said. "My husband wouldn't join me until my
> postpartum. Late pregnancy symptoms and the intense environment around
> (in the boarding home) were nothing but taxing. It all became worthy
> when I heard Dylon's first cry. I told myself from now on I am the mom
> of an American citizen."
>
> Amy referred to provisions of the 14th Amendment, which ensures that
> "all persons born in the United States" are automatically granted
> citizenship and "full and equal benefit of all laws."
>
> Foreign mothers giving birth on US soil also generate a population of
> "anchor babies". As US citizens, when the children become 21 they are
> eligible to sponsor their parents and relatives for legal immigration,
> functioning as the US "anchor" for their extended immigrant family.
>
> US citizenship offers a wide range of government benefits and
> assistance programs, including Social Security; Medicare; free public
> education and possible merit-based loans and grants for college and
> hassle-free tourism access to 186 countries.
>
> In contrast, there is strong competition for a job and career
> development in the world's most populous nation. Although China is
> second to the US in terms of economic strength, recent college
> graduates make a monthly salary of $450, according to a 2012 report by
> the China Data Center at Tsinghua University.
>
> "I want my son to live an easy and happy life," said Amy, adding she
> doubts that would be possible in China. "I hope the US citizenship can
> provide him another option."
>
> It takes about eight to 10 years on average for a legal immigrant to
> obtain US citizenship. "If something unpredictable happens, such as
> the gloomy economy or missing documentation, the waiting period could
> be longer," said Lu Ren, a New York-based immigration attorney, who
> said 70 percent of his clients are of Chinese origin. "So, the US-born
> children are really on a fast track regarding the acquisition of their
> citizenships," he added.
>
> In an online survey conducted in April by Tencent, China's largest
> Internet service provider, 69 percent of 101,529 respondents answered
> "Yes" to the question of "Will you choose to give birth in the US if
> opportunity allows?"
>
> Li and her husband, both senior engineers with the a power company in
> Xi'an, Shaanxi province, said they have long dreamed of having another
> child to keep their 7-year-old daughter company. They intentionally
> dodge discussing having another child in public "just in case the
> rumors will backfire and be heard by our boss," said Li, 37.
>
> Violation of the policy, no matter in public service or private
> sectors, can lead to demotion, job termination of the person involved,
> and a monetary penalty that can be two to six times a family's annual
> income.
>
> "The fiscal penalty (of having the second child) is not a problem,
> what we can't afford is losing our job, retirement pension and health
> insurance, the sense of security when we are getting older," said Li.
>
> 'An American baby'
>
> In the fall of 2012, she said her husband said, "`Why don't we try to
> have an American baby?'", noting that the one-child restriction
> doesn't apply to those who give birth outside of China.
>
> Li said she managed to get pregnant and continued to work throughout
> her first and second trimesters, and asked for a sabbatical leave of
> six months to cover her coming to the US, giving birth and completing
> the newborn's citizenship documentation and then returning to China
> and her company.
>
> Li said she can't wait to start her motherhood again in June. "My
> daughter and husband will fly into LA to welcome our new family
> member, a boy we will name 'Arcadia,"' she said.
>
> In Arcadia, six to eight boarding houses have been closed in the past
> several months, and an additional 12 are under investigation. Last
> year the city created a task force of police, fire and business-
> licensing departments to investigate boarding houses, according to
> Jason Kruckeberg, the city's development-services director.
>
> "In Arcadia, boarding houses that are not state licensed are not
> permitted in a residential zone," he said. "We do not have a land use
> designation for these uses in commercial zones either."
>
> 'Illegal activity'
>
> Maternity houses have grown beyond the scope of just a zoning issue,
> said Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe. He said conditions
> inside some boarding houses put the safety of the mothers and babies
> at risk. For example, she said, owners usually remove adjoining
> structural walls to create more divided rooms, making it unsafe for
> occupancy based on the standard for dwelling units. "We must do what
> we can to protect them and stop this illegal activity," said Knabe.
>
> Zoning and building-code violations led authorities in the Los Angeles
> County city of San Gabriel to close three townhouses that had been
> converted to maternity-boarding centers early this year.
>
> Mayor David Gutierrez said that while he understood why some
> foreigners would choose to have their children born in the US, the
> future welfare of the children of foreigners shouldn't affect
> "services and quality of life that we provided for US residents."
>
> Maternity tourism in Southern California made headlines in October
> 2011 with reports by US media, including the Los Angeles Times, CBS
> News, CNN and NBC News about residents in a quiet neighborhood of
> Chino Hills, a suburb of Los Angles, demonstrating outside a maternity
> hotel with posters that read "No Chino Hills, no anywhere".
> Authorities closed it in December 2012.
>
> Birth tourism also has reached the US Congress. Some lawmakers have
> attempted to introduce bills to penalize maternity-hotel owners, as
> well as ask for a reinterpretation of the US Constitution.
>
> Steve King, an Iowa Republican in the House of Representatives,
> sponsored a bill that would limit automatic citizenship to people with
> at least one parent being a US citizen, a legal permanent resident or
> serving in the military.
>
> US Representative Judy Chu, a California Democrat, said she isn't
> convinced that birth tourism is a big-enough issue to warrant a
> reinterpretation of the Constitution.
>
> "The 14th Amendment is fundamental to the US and too important to
> change because of the practice of a few," said Chu, the first Chinese
> American woman elected to Congress. "It would be a severe disservice
> to our nation if millions of immigrants are painted with the same
> brush."
>
> In TV footage broadcast by CBS News in January 2012, a Chino Hills
> resident, Rossana Mitchell, said, "When people think of the American
> dream, they are not thinking about birth tourism. They are thinking
> about people who come here, immigrate here, work hard, pay their
> taxes, become citizens and become Americans."
>
> In response to Mitchell's comment, a man named Ottom wrote on the CBS
> News website comment section: "Their babies most likely grow up with
> their parents in China, not using American resources. America has
> millions of illegal immigrants who are gaining undeserved sympathy;
> they are the big problem compared with the minimal scale of the so-
> called birth tourism The notion that these parents are abusing the
> 14th Amendment is absurd. It will take at least 21 years for these
> Chinese parents to obtain US green cards."
>
> That's exactly Dylon's case. He went to China with his mother when he
> was 1-month old and makes trips to the US every two years to renew his
> entry permit to China, which is issued by the Chinese Consulate
> General in Los Angeles. He also must come to the US every five years
> to renew his passport.
>
> "During each of our US stays, we spent heavily in buying luxury
> suitcases, outfits and accessories on top of lodging and dining out,"
> said Amy, adding that her son is contributing to the US economic
> recovery at a very young age.
>
> Echoing Ottom's points, another person named Nova left his comment on
> the CBS website: "Having some child who is likely to come back at 18
> to attend college and stay for a job, contributes to the US economy
> and pays income and social taxes, what's the problem here?"
>
> Contact the writer at
junech...@chinadailyusa.com