Free Republic

A woman who allegedly entered the CNMI in 2015 as a tourist from China, but the real intent was to give birth, is expected to enter a guilty plea today, Tuesday, in federal court. Assistant U.S. attorney Garth Backe, counsel for the U.S. government, informed the U.S. District Court for the NMI last Thursday that defendant Lichan Lu signed a plea agreement. ... Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona granted the U.S. government’s motion and set the hearing for today at 9am. Last Thursday, Backe filed an information that charged Lu with one count of improper entry into the U.S. by...

A New Jersey hospital advertises its services to pregnant Russian women who want to give birth in the U.S., enabling their children to qualify for dual citizenship This is the first in a series of articles investigating Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center. In this story we take a look at the facility’s AmeriMama birth-tourism program. Our second story details the hospital’s questionable business practices; the third, its ties to powerful NJ politicians.. A company based in the Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center has been advertising online to Russian citizens, encouraging pregnant women to come to the Secaucus facility to give birth —...

A jury found a Garden Grove obstetrician negligent Monday in the death of a 26-year-old mother from China, finding he abandoned his patient in an intensive care unit after she had bled profusely. Jurors awarded the woman's husband, Yuanda Hong, and their two young sons about $2 million in damages. Before the trial, Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center settled for $3.2 million.

Airfare from the U.S. to China and a months-long stay in an Orange County, Calif., apartment: $80,000. A baby born a U.S. citizen: priceless. In the largest operation of its kind, early Tuesday morning federal officials in Southern California served warrants at "Chinese birthing houses" or "maternity hotels," where wealthy Chinese nationals paid up to $80,000 for the sole purpose of giving birth in the U.S. to obtain citizenship for their children, earning in-state tuition to U.S. universities for them and permanent U.S. residency for the parents. "It is essentially citizenship for sale," said Center for Immigration Studies analyst Jessica...

Arrrrrrghhhhh! For many people, including some here at the Corner, the solution is to end automatic citizenship at birth, but I'm not a fan of that. The way we determine citizenship is simple and decentralized — we need to do a better job of tracking birth records to ensure they're legitimate, but if they are, that's all you need to demonstrate citizenship, so there's no need to petition a bureaucrat in Washington. But . . . if you're going to keep automatic citizenship at birth, there are two things you can't do — wink at massive illegal immigration (almost one...

With more Turkish parents wanting their child to be born in the US, tourism companies are starting to offer ‘birth tourism’ packages to US cities. Many women say giving birth in the US has benefits including cheaper education and fewer visa worries. Some Americans, however, want to restrict the practice, citing fears of illegal migration If Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 hit “Born in the USA” were to become popular again, the title might now refer to thousands of Turkish children whose parents are increasingly traveling to the United States to give birth. According to tourism expert Gürkan Boztepe and media sources,...