{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://sablan.house.gov/nmi-addressing-birth-tourism-says-governor", "NMI addressing birth tourism, says governor", "2013-11-12", "2013", "2013-11", "Independent", "Senate", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "GOVERNOR Eloy S. Inos and U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan are working with federal authorities to prevent the \u201csmall issue\u201d of birth tourism from being \u201cblown out of proportion.\u201d\nIn a joint press conference in the Fiesta Resort & Spa\u2019s Azucena Room yesterday, Inos and Sablan emphasized that women can\u2019t be denied entry to the CNMI because they are pregnant.\nThey said they want to \u201ccontain\u201d this issue for the sake of the health and safety of the female visitors themselves.\nThey also wish to avoid potential liability on the part of airlines and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. if something bad happens to the pregnant passenger on the plane or while she is on island.\nInos said it is very risky for the hospital to accept pregnant women who haven\u2019t had prenatal care.\nFor his part, Sablan said the incident involving a pregnant tourist from China who hid at the airport should not happen again.\nThat woman, he added, should not have been allowed to board the plane in the first place.\n\u201cThey are welcome to come here and enjoy our beautiful islands. There is a way to [address this issue] without being discriminatory. I think there is something we can do. Let\u2019s keep this problem small,\u201d Sablan said adding that he and the governor are working closely with federal authorities.\nHe said the CNMI wants tourists from China to continue coming here but birth tourism \u201cis an issue that concerns all of us.\u201d\nSablan said he and the governor have been working on the issue since April when they wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about it.\nHe said the governor has asked him to deal with the federal government, while Inos works with the airlines.\nSablan said he met with DHS officials in September and is expecting another meeting as soon as he returns to Washington, D.C.\n\u201cWe have a small issue here that we would really like to keep contained because it took us a while to create a good image for the NMI,\u201d Sablan said.\nInos, he added, \u201cis giving me some instructions on what it is I may need to do and I have taken those instructions on this one issue and in many others. On this one issue, we are very closely working together.\u201d\nAccording to Inos, birth tourism also happens in the states but focus has shifted to the CNMI because it is only four to five hours away from China.\n\u201cSo birth tourism basically has drawn the attention of the national media and, of course, the concern of folks out here and the U.S. mainland,\u201d he added.\nInos said the CNMI is not advertising birth tourism and the visa-waiver program for Chinese is for tourism and not for foreign women who want to give birth here.\nHe said his administration has already reached out to tour agencies and airlines that bring Chinese tourists to Saipan.\nHe said they have found that, in most cases, a carrier providing scheduled flights \u201cdoes not have the kind of heightened scrutiny for passengers.\u201d\n\u201cSo we have reached out and we have discussed the issue with the airlines that seem to be having this kind of situation and they promised they will ensure that their security and screening procedures are followed,\u201d Inos said.\nVariety tried to get a comment from Asiana Airlines on Saipan but its branch manager who identified himself only as Choi said only the general manager has the authority to talk on the matter. The general manager did not report for work yesterday because it was holiday.\nAsiana provides regular China-Saipan flights.\nInos said \u201cthere are still a few folks that slip through the cracks so we want to make sure that this is addressed properly. We are doing it. The congressman and I have already talked to DHS and he has been following up this matter closely on the ground in D.C. to seek help.\u201d\nHe said they have not seen any increase in birth tourism incidents. \u201cIn fact we are seeing fewer but it only takes one incident to really blow this out of proportion,\u201d he said referring to the pregnant women who hid at the Saipan airport.\nInos said \u201cmaybe we can also try to identify freelance travel agencies out there who are actually booking these individuals coming over here. And that is where we have to zero in. We are not too concerned about chartered flights because we know they are controlled by just two travel agencies. But for scheduled flights, any agency that is out there could make a booking.\u201d\nInos said that CNMI government has also reached out to the Chinese consulate in California.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://sablan.house.gov/nmi-addressing-birth-tourism-says-governor"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.969588989391923, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}