W*****B
发帖数: 4796 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 Military 讨论区 】
发信人: WCNMLGB (CCC), 信区: Military
标 题: 中国妈妈为了生出美国宝宝，现在都去塞班岛产仔了
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Thu Dec 21 12:24:53 2017, 美东)
现在加州查的太严。塞班岛是个好空子。估计以后还会有关岛，维尔京群岛，波多黎各
等这些地方是中国妈妈的备选产仔地。
China
The Island Where Chinese Mothers Deliver American Babies
Women looking to give birth to U.S. citizens have found a loophole in the
Pacific: Saipan
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands—This U.S. territory in the western Pacific
is known for its epic World War II battle, white-sand beaches and the
enduring culture of its indigenous Chamorro people.
But for a certain class of Chinese parents, Saipan has become known as the
latest hot spot for birth tourism, a place where women can give birth to
babies who will automatically acquire U.S. citizenship.
The Northern Marianas, an island chain that includes Saipan, is the only U.S
. soil that Chinese can visit without a visa, after a change in immigration
policy in 2009 allowed Chinese and Russian tourists visa-free entry for up
to 45 days.
“It’s just like if God opened a window for you,” said a Chinese father
who works as a translator here after coming a few years ago to ensure his
child would be born American.
WSJ for iPad & iPhone
What’s News
Your destination for the day's most
important business and markets news.
DOWNLOAD THE WSJ APP
The Northern Marianas pressed for the visa waiver to support an economy
reliant on tourism, notably to Saipan’s casinos and gambling parlors. The
number of Chinese visitors has risen substantially since 2009 and now
represents 36% of tourists to the island, which is four to five hours’
flight from Shanghai and Guangzhou. Tourism accounts for 72% of Saipan’s
economy.
The number of American babies born here to Chinese women who entered as
tourists also climbed—to 472 last year from eight in 2009—according to the
Northern Marianas government. Last year, for the first time, more Chinese
tourists gave birth here than Americans.
“As long as you have birthright citizenship, it’s true this is something
that can be exploited,” said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S
. Immigration and Naturalization Service and senior fellow at the Migration
Policy Institute. “This is the first I’ve heard of Saipan,” she said. “
That’s actually quite clever.”
U.S. authorities don’t have a tally of how many people come to the U.S.
each year to gain birthright citizenship. An association of Chinese birth-
tour operators estimated that 10,000 Chinese birth tourists came to the U.S.
in 2012.
Chinese travel businesses offer competing packages to help Chinese mothers
reach U.S. soil and provide them with lodging, hospital care and domestic
help.
There is nothing illegal about birth tourism, provided the visitor has the
funds to pay for required medical procedures and doesn’t intend to overstay
, said Jaime Ruiz, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In 2015, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided nearly 40
locations tied to birth-tourism operations in Southern California, the
search warrants cited suspected visa fraud, tax evasion and harboring
illegal immigrants, among other charges. The related cases are ongoing, ICE
said.
The translator in Saipan said immigration enforcement on the U.S. mainland
had led more Chinese parents to consider Saipan. While birth-tourism
packages to Los Angeles included guidance on how to qualify for a tourist
visa, Chinese travelers to Saipan needn’t clear that hurdle.
American obstetrician Claire Grove said that when she came to work at a
clinic on Saipan last year, she was surprised at how many Chinese women had
come to the island to give birth.
She soon had a unique perspective on birth tourism.
Dr. Grove learned that Sen Sun, a translator, was running a business to help
Chinese mothers deliver on Saipan. Concerned about what she believed to be
Mr. Sun’s exploitation of illegal Chinese workers, Dr. Grove went to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
As a result of an FBI probe, the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern
Marianas prosecuted Mr. Sun, leading to his Dec. 8 guilty plea of harboring
illegal aliens in relation to his hiring of Chinese maids to care for birth
tourists.
“They feel trapped without U.S. citizenship,” Dr. Grove said of the maids.
“They have no means to complain about not being paid or anything.”
In his plea deal, Mr. Sun said he operated “an unregistered and therefore
illegal business operation arranging travel, medical, and other services to
pregnant foreign citizens,” in which he charged women more than $15,000
each, before hospital bills. Sentencing is set for March.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the case against Mr. Sun,
whose lawyer declined to comment on the case and on Dr. Grove’s accusation
that Mr. Sun exploited his staff.
In China, websites advertising birth-tourism packages abound, with names
such as GlobalBaby8.com, promising luxurious birth vacations to Saipan. The
Chinese translator whose wife gave birth on Saipan said total costs can
exceed $50,000.
“Everyone is feeling unsafe in China,” the father said, citing among other
things the political crackdown under President Xi Jinping. “We will do
anything for our kids.” The father still lives on Saipan with his wife and
children, and fears they will be deported.
Recently in the obstetrics unit at Saipan’s main hospital, a pregnant
Chinese woman walked down a hall in a hospital gown and pink slippers,
trailed by her translator, past a painting of Chamorro warriors dueling in
loincloths.
Doctors and administrators said the surge in the number of Chinese mothers
is overwhelming health facilities. “It’s a strain for the community,”
said Esther Muna, CEO of government health provider Commonwealth Healthcare
Corporation, which runs the hospital.
Ms. Muna said Chinese women in late stages of pregnancy presented
difficulties when doctors didn’t know their medical history. In October, a
Chinese mother died in childbirth on the island.
Saipan is leaving it to federal authorities to chase down immigration
violators. The Justice Department in April said it was cracking down on
immigration violations in the Northern Marianas, after the conviction of a
Taiwan national for harboring a Chinese birth tourist who had overstayed.
“Federal and local authorities should know where birth tourists are being
housed and should be able to identify overstayers,” said Gregorio Sablan,
the Northern Marianas’ congressional representative. “Cutting off visa-
free travel to the Marianas for hundreds of thousands of visitors from China
in order to prevent a few hundred birth tourists makes no sense from a
business point of view.”
Write to Jon Emont at [email protected] |
|
