releases: https://sablan.house.gov/birth-tourism-serious-concern-says-kilili
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://sablan.house.gov/birth-tourism-serious-concern-says-kilili | Birth tourism a serious concern, says Kilili | 2017-11-16 | 2017 | 2017-11 | Democrat | House | MP | Gregorio Sablan | S001177 | sablan.house.gov | legacy | Marianas Variety — U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan said birth tourism is a serious concern for the CNMI “because it could threaten…the parole program that makes Chinese and Russian tourism possible for us.” Birth-tourism may also involve criminal activity and overstaying, “which cannot be tolerated and which gives the Marianas a bad name,” he added. He said the Trump administration has its eye on birth-tourism in the CNMI. In a way, this is unfair — birth tourism is a problem everywhere in the U.S., not just the Marianas, Kilili said. “I have also been saying for years that the commercial airlines need to do a better job of prescreening — the same way our charters do — to keep birth tourists out. Former Gov. Eloy Inos and I asked the Department of Homeland Security to help with this, but under President Barack Obama, the agency said it did not have the legal authority. Maybe we will see a change with the Trump administration.” At the same time, Kilili said he is “very pleased to learn that the United States Attorney’s Office filed an indictment against an individual who promoted birth tourism, was working without a worker visa, hiring tourists as workers, and potentially money laundering.” From 2011 to 2017 the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s Vital Statistics Office recorded an increase in births involving mostly women from China. In 2011 there were 221 births involving mothers who were tourists. In 2012 there were 319; in 2013, 287; in 2014, 314; in 2015, 379; in 2016, 482; and from January to October 2017, the figure was 465. Under the American Constitution, U.S. citizenship is automatically conferred on children born in the U.S. On Dec. 30, 2016, the Los Angeles Times published a news report titled, “Why birth tourism from China persists even as U.S. officials crack down.” It stated that “even as middle class incomes in China enjoy explosive growth, and 96 percent of Chinese people in a recent Pew Research poll say their lives are better than those of their parents, an unknown number of ‘birth tourists’…cross oceans each year to have their babies in America. And in America’s Chinese enclaves, they find a cottage industry of Chinese midwives, drivers and doctors who accept cash and ‘maternity hotels’ — apartments or homes run as hotels for the women during their pregnancies.” The report stated that “anyone who lies about the purpose of their visit to the U.S. can be charged with visa fraud, but birth tourism per se is not illegal.” The report quoted Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as saying: “There is nothing in the law that makes it illegal for pregnant women to enter the United States.” According to the LA Times, in 2015, “the State Department issued 2.27 million visas to Chinese tourists. It does not track what proportion of visas are issued to birth tourists. Childbirth is a legitimate reason to travel to the U.S., and as long as Chinese nationals provide the correct paperwork and evidence they can pay for their medical care, they will be issued a visa, department officials said.” The report also stated that the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative-leaning think tank, “estimates that nearly 36,000 Chinese nationals give birth in the U.S. each year, but ‘that’s just a guess,’ said Jessica Vaughan, the center’s executive director.” | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |