On CNN's “Laura Coates Live” on Tuesday, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) said it was a “hateful act” for people to abuse their birthright citizenship by participating in birth tours. He claimed that it was a fantasy. The Justice Department under the Biden administration has acknowledged its existence and has secured convictions and guilty pleas of individuals connected to operating the birth tourism program, saying it “sees no evidence of that.”
host Laura Coates asked. [relevant exchange begins around 16:35] “[T]There's a discussion going on here that people are grappling with. And the phrase they use is “birth tourism,” which undermines the core principle of birthright citizenship and is instead exploited. How do you fight against it legally? ”
“Frankly, I think that's a hateful fantasy, and I don't see any evidence of it. The people we need in Connecticut, the people we need as part of our economy, I There are people who are working and contributing, like my family and my parents. They came here with nothing. They worked at a Chinese restaurant. They worked seven days a week. day 12 hours to 1 They worked sick for five hours. I watched them do it. And I was with my parents at a popular Chinese restaurant in Wethersfield, CT. I went from working as a state attorney general. That's the eternal beauty of our country. It's the core of the American dream, and that's what we're fighting for.”
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice will certain conviction Two California residents were charged with running a “birth tourism'' scheme that charged Chinese customers tens of thousands of dollars to help them give birth in the United States in order to ensure that their children received birthright U.S. citizenship. '' against two California residents. In 2021, the Department of Justice secured a guilty plea A Turkish citizen has been charged with conspiracy to commit health insurance and wire fraud in connection with a so-called 'birth trip' scheme in Suffolk County from approximately 2017 to 2020. “facilitated the fraudulent entry of pregnant Turkish women into the United States by exploiting the need to obtain maternity visas in order for their children to receive birthright citizenship and health care benefits.” There is. ”
In a 2021 lawsuit, DHS officials argued that “the criminal nature of birth tourism manipulates our nation's visa and immigration systems to provide services to local communities to combat COVID-19 and other critical needs.” “It is diverting valuable resources from an already overwhelmed health care system.” and, article The American Journal of Perinatology was funded in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of birth tourism on newborn health.
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