Monday, July 19, 2010

Citizenship for Sale for a mere $1475
Better known as the 14th amendment birth tourism package

Washington Post --

in Shanghai China, $1475 can buy you a US passport and citizenship for your new baby.
"Zhou and Chao, a husband and wife from Taiwan who now live in Shanghai, run one of China's oldest and most successful consultancies helping well-heeled expectant Chinese mothers travel to the United States to give birth..."


the package, which includes a three months stay (two months before birth and one month after)takes advantage of one of the loopholes in the 14th amendment.

"Zhou and Chao insist that everything they do is legal, noting that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, says anyone born on U.S. soil has the right to citizenship. "We don't encourage moms to break the law -- just to take advantage of it," Zhou said. "It's like jaywalking. The policeman might fine you, but it doesn't break the law."

"We are not snakeheads," he added, using the common term here for Chinese gangsters involved in smuggling illegal immigrants. "

the Chinese, have found a way to profit from the 14th amendment and to do it legally.

one thing I find very interesting in the article, is that the writer states that a some of the parents that bring their children over here to be born US citizens have no intention them selves in remaining in the United States. They are simply more concerned for their children's future unlike in my opinion those who cross the border illegally dragging their three-year-old child here apparently unconcerned at all for the type of future that they're placing their child into.

it still doesn't make it right, however, it is another reason to take another look at the 14th amendment.

No comments: