Free Republic

‘Peter and Ellie Yang,” the subjects of Benjamin Carlson’s fascinating new Rolling Stone essay, “Welcome to Maternity Hotel California,” paid $35,000 to have their second child in the United States. In 2012 Chinese state media reported 10,000 “tourist births” by Chinese couples in the United States; other estimates skew as high as 60,000. Following Donald Trump’s call for an end to birthright citizenship, and renewed attention on “anchor babies,” Carlson’s exposé on “birth tourism” seems to confirm that the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment works as a magnet for at least some parents across the globe. But just...

Myths about birthright citizenship—promoted by liberals, embraced by establishment Republicans, and repeated by mainstream media pundits without critical examination—have been debunked by experts spanning the political spectrum. But none of those people are being given A-list treatment by major media outlets to respond. Instead, the voices given the biggest public platforms are commentators who lack any professional credentials on the topic, who breezily assure viewers that “of course everyone knows” that the Fourteenth Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born in this country. And when the media occasionally puts on an opposition guest to provide a veneer of balanced reporting, they...

Wisconsin Governor and Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker said he’s “not taking a position…one way or the other” on birthright citizenship, and all other issues pertaining to immigration can’t be addressed “until you actually secure the borders and enforce the laws” in an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood released on Friday. Walker was asked about his support for ending birthright citizenship. He stated, “When it comes to birthright, or anything else, I said until you…actually secure the border, and start enforcing the laws, any politician who talks about anything else beyond that, the American people should be suspect, because we’ve...

MIAMI (AP) — The debate over a controversial proposal to end the automatic granting of citizenship to children of people in the U.S. illegally is a distraction from what the nation really needs to do to stem the tide of illegal immigration, several Republican presidential candidates said Sunday. Related Stories On the television network news talk shows, the GOP hopefuls said enforcing U.S. immigration laws would resolve the problem of "birthright citizenship" without having to go through what they see as an impractical effort to end it with a constitutional amendment.