The Supreme Court narrowly ruled Tuesday that Chinese nationals partaking in birth tourism schemes may continue to do so and receive citizenship for their babies, making it imperative that President Donald Trump implement a complete ban on travel from China.
The high court held that “children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.”
But as Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his dissent, “The Court’s interpretation also has national-security implications.”
“Suppose that a person’s only connection to this country is that he was born here to a mother who was present just long enough to give birth and then quickly returned to her native country. Suppose that country is a strategic adversary or enemy of the United States. Suppose the child never visited the United States while growing up and was inculcated with hatred of this country. According to the Court, that person is a citizen of the United States. He can enter and leave the country as he pleases. He can travel the world on a United States passport. Even if he plots to harm this country, he cannot be deprived of his status as a citizen, at least under current precedent.”
Alito’s warning isn’t some far-fetched concern, either.
There are active Chinese birth tourism scams going on in the United States. For example, the Have My Baby in Miami clinic (whose website has now been taken down) is a business that allows foreign nationals using temporary visitor visas to travel to the country to give birth and make a paperwork American. Republicans in Congress are investigating the birth tourism schemes. But even if these clinics are shut down, it doesn’t mean Chinese nationals can’t just conspire on their own and time their trip to the United States around their due date.
And the risk of allowing foreign nationals from a hostile country to have a paperwork American baby is far too great.
In recent years we’ve seen how the Chinese Communist Party has utilized our lax immigration rules to send spies and nationals determined to undermine our national security. Chinese nationals have been charged for conspiring to smuggle biological materials into the U.S. and voting illegally in our elections, while other Chinese nationals have been buying land near sensitive military sites.
There is also the case of Eileen Gu. Gu was born in San Francisco to Chinese parents who were government officials. She was raised in America, but when the chance came, she competed for China in the Olympics.
While these persons may not have all benefited from birthplace citizenship, they highlight the real risk of giving birthright citizenship to persons from a country openly hostile to the United States with active campaigns to sabotage our national security.
At a time when the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in aggressive espionage campaigns, billions in intellectual property theft, and other operations intended to undermine the United States, the president now has no choice but to close off any avenues for exploitation of our Constitution, especially when these concerns are justified.
