Thread: Makeshift maternity ward fuels birthright citizenship debate

Published: March 25, 2011
Updated: 4:27 p.m.

Makeshift maternity ward fuels birthright citizenship debate

BY CINDY CARCAMO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A makeshift maternity ward in the San Gabriel Valley suspected of catering to wealthy Asian tourists hoping to give birth to their children on U.S. soil is fueling the debate surrounding birthright citizenship.

San Gabriel city officials shut down a maternity operation with 10 newborns and about 12 Chinese nationals in an illegally converted townhouse earlier this month, according to the Pasadena Star-News.

A makeshift maternity ward in the San Gabriel Valley suspected of catering to wealthy Asian tourists is fueling the dabate surrounding birthright citizenship.

The women paid up to $35,000 to travel to Southern California to give birth to their children on U.S. soil – granting them automatic U.S. citizenship, the paper reported.

The illegal maternity ward sparked criticism from local Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, the Associated Press reported. The lawmaker has joined a chorus of other Republican lawmakers who say changes need to be made to the 14th Amendment, which has been widely interpreted as granting automatic U.S. citizenship to those born on U.S. soil.

State legislators from – from Arizona to South Carolina – announced earlier this year in Washington, D.C., that they planned to aim their legislative immigration enforcement efforts at the U.S.-born children of those in the country illegally.

However, other lawmakers and experts defend birthright citizenship.
Chapman University law professor Maria Cianciarulo, an immigration expert, told the Associated Press that birthing tourism is a tiny fraction of the flow of immigrants and tourists into the United States.

On March 8, San Gabriel city code enforcement officials, building inspectors and police officers shut down the makeshift ward, the Star-News reported.

The townhouse owner, Dwight Chang, had been warned twice before for operating a business that primarily caters to Asian maternity tourists, officials told the Star-News

"I've never seen anything as big as this," San Gabriel code enforcement officer Jorge Arellano told the newspaper.

City officials cited Chang with an $800 fine for violating building codes and operating without a license, the Associated Press reported. Chang didn't have required permits for the several modifications he made to the townhouse, which included converting closets into bathrooms and adding rooms for the expectant mothers and newborn children, the Star-News reported.

It's not against the law for pregnant women to come to the United States to give birth, according to federal laws.

Foreign women who are pregnant are permitted to travel to the U.S. on a visa as long as they meet federal immigration requirements.

Take a look at which countries grant birthright citizenship.

Read more about the incident in the Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7924 or ccarcamo@ocregister.com or

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http://www.ocregister.com/news/citizens ... -news.html

there are approximately 80 sponsors and co sponsors on the birthright bill in the house right now. I think they all need to have copies of this story and the original story of the bust sent to their email