Thread: Venezualans Dropping Anchor Babies Here

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... -headlines

Many Venezuelan are giving birth in S. Fla. to obtain citizenship for their children

Weston · Veronica Pita recently traveled from Venezuela to South Florida just to give birth to her son and guarantee that he grows up a U.S. citizen.

Worried that President Hugo Chavez may claim guardianship rights over children, dozens of Venezuelan women have traveled to South Florida in recent months to give birth, local doctors say.

The women generally arrive on tourist visas when they are seven months pregnant and return home six weeks after delivery.

Most say they think their children's U.S. citizenship will exempt them from future Venezuelan government measures. Others say they want their children to enjoy the benefits of U.S. citizenship should the family eventually move here.

Roberto Infante, director of research at the Florida Institute for Reproductive Sciences and Technologies in Weston, has coordinated care for about 30 Venezuelan expectant mothers since December.

Infante practiced obstetrics in Venezuela before leaving in 2000 and says women come to him through word of mouth. They bring copies of medical files from their Venezuelan doctors, and Infante helps schedule prenatal tests and answers questions about their stay in Florida. He also remains a contact while they see obstetrician Hugo Ferrara at Memorial Hospital Miramar.

"I'm thinking only of my son's future," said Pita, 28, an interior designer from Caracas. "At first, I planned to give birth calmly back home, but then the rumors started. I kept wondering, `What if I can't take my child out of the country? What other restrictions will the government impose?' There's so much insecurity now in Venezuela."

According to opposition groups, Venezuela is considering a law that would require parents to obtain government permission to take their children out of the country, among other measures. Government officials deny that and accuse the opposition of trying to scare the public.

But rumor alone was enough to get Pita on a plane to Florida in April.

She is staying at an apartment her mother owns in Weston. She gave birth to her son, Santiago, on June 1, and plans to return home in a month.

Most women stay with friends or relatives and pay out of pocket, usually $4,000 in doctors' fees and $3,800 for hospital fees.

Pita said three friends traveled to South Florida for the last two months of their pregnancies and gave birth in December, February and March. Her doctor in Venezuela put her in touch with Infante.

"These women find a lot of comfort in being able to have their child in this country. They receive the best care and their child is guaranteed to be a U.S. citizen," said Infante, who heads the Venezuelan American Medical Association. He charges $500 to $1,000 for his services.

Statistics tracking women who travel to the U.S. to give birth are not available, experts say.

But immigration officials and advocates of stricter immigration laws say so-called "birth tours" are common. Thousands of middle-class South Korean women travel each year to the United States to give birth to U.S. citizens who can avoid their country's military draft. U.S. clinics along the Mexican border offer services to border-crossing, pregnant Mexican women that include delivering and processing their birth certificates, passports and other documents for a set fee, according to information from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

"Clearly, we are setting ourselves up to be taken advantage of," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C., who favors a stricter interpretation of the 14th amendment. The amendment establishes that, with a few exceptions that include the children of foreign diplomats, any child born on U.S. soil is a citizen.

For Venezuelans, a murky political future back home is reason enough to give birth here.

"The only reason we're here is because of Chavez," said Avelino Pita, 29, Pita's husband and a restaurant owner in Caracas. "We were afraid the government was going to come to us and say, `Your son is Venezuelan. Your son stays here.'"

Spokespersons for Chavez' government say Chavez has no plans to take greater control of children.

"There is no basis in fact for these accusations," said Olivia B. Goumbri, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Venezuela Information Office. "This is the opposition trying to get everyone up in arms."

Chavez first won election in 1998 in a bid to redistribute wealth and implement socialist reforms in Venezuela through his so-called Bolivarian Revolution. He won a new term by a wide margin in December. Observers say his plans to tighten the government's grip on private schools and implement a socialist curriculum sparked fears that he would take more draconian steps.

Even opponents agree that with rumors swirling, it's hard to separate fact from fiction in Venezuela.

Venezuelan attorney and activist Maylin Silva of Miami knows several women who have traveled to South Florida to give birth, but questions whether they will gain any real protections for their children. She said the children, by virtue of their parents' nationality, would still be Venezuelan and would not be exempt from any government laws.

"There's a lot of misinformation out there and people are acting on it," Silva said. "It's a sign of how desperate things have become in Venezuela."

This makes me sick! Our government needs to stop giving tourist visas to pregnant women from 3rd world countries!!!!!!!!!!

Mexicans have been crossing the border in busses to have their children in America for the last 40 years. go to a social security office in Az and there are more Mexicans filing for aid to dependent children than there are Americans. People are using our laws against us. time for Congress to change the interruption of the 14th Admendment.

Most women stay with friends or relatives and pay out of pocket, usually $4,000 in doctors' fees and $3,800 for hospital fees.

This definitely gives new meaning to the term "earned citizenship." How are these mothers earning citizenship for their children? Basically what this boils down to is our country is selling citizenship to those who can afford it. For those that can't afford it (illegals), our government just gives it to them. This certainly dilutes the ivalue of our own citizenship.

I have no problem with Venezuelan women paying for the delivery of their child in America, however, I have a serious problem with the child be honored with U.S. citizenship.

This is just not right!! it needs to be stopped, imagine the flood in 20 years when all these babies decide to come home to their birthright Nation, same problem all over again except they will already be legal, quite a scam if you think about it. You could set up future integration very easy for 20 years down the road.


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WE NEED EVERYBODY CALLING, FAXING AND E-MAILING, AND POSTING SO WE KNOW WHAT YOUR HEARING. LET THEM KNOW U.S.CITIZENS HAVE COME OUT OF THE SHADOWS AND ARE SEEING THE LIGHT!!!!!!

Link to instrucions and posts
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=67975

Link to Kates new Fax!!
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=67814

The anchor baby scam is the worst problem we have. There is nothing we can do about the tens of millions of them that have hatched in the US over the past 20 years. At least we know there is a good chance we can deport illegals...there's a light at the end of the tunnel...but not for the anchor babies.

There is a Korean 'birthing center' right here in a fashionable residential area of LA that is linked up to So. Korean travel agencies. It's a package deal for expectant mothers. They come here to hatch American citizens for the purpose of educating them in the US at a future date.

Anchor babies...the only manufacturing jobs that are not being outsourced!