“Have My Baby in Miami” is the name of a birth tourism business that was the subject of a recent glowing report on Univision’s national evening news.
The feature opened an interesting window on several aspects of the current birthright citizenship regime in the United States that trouble many Americans. Among them, that birthright citizenship serves as a magnet for becoming a U.S. citizen simply for convenience and “benefits”, as well as a platform for subsequent chain migration for entire families.
GUSTAVO MARIEL, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: Medical experts say that there are many reasons for Latin American couples choosing to have their babies in the United States, but the main one is giving United States citizenship to their newborn, which can be beneficial in the future.
DR. FRANCISCO CRUZ: Their children will have access to the country when they are 18 years old if they want to come to study or if they want to enjoy certain benefits like being able to work in the United States without having to apply for a work permit.
Left unsaid, for example, is the concern that in reality the core national attachment of such automatic U.S. citizens is not going to be to the country of their ‘convenient’ birth, but to the countries where they are actually rooted and raised. In addition, as Dr. Cruz says, as adults these citizens are then positioned to potentially bring added competition – and the downward pressure on wages that added competition entails – to the U.S. labor force.
<<< Please consider helping NewsBusters financially with your tax-deductible contribution today! >>>
Thank you!
Also left unsaid in the report, although it is certainly of additional great benefit to targeted patients, is that after age 21, such citizens are able to sponsor their parents and siblings to join them in the United States.
Moreover, although Univision reporter Gustavo Mariel and the doctors at Have My Baby in Miami point out that their targeted clientele are high-end and have the capacity to pay all their medical bills, those high-end clients represent only a fraction of the several hundred thousand children born each year to unauthorized immigrants in the country.
It’s the financial burden of the entire cohort, on balance, that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and other opponents of birthright citizenship have in mind when they talk about the downside of such citizenship for U.S. taxpayers as a whole.
Below is the translated transcript of the cited report, broadcast on the October 14, 2016 edition of Noticiero Univision:
UNIVISION
NOTICIERO UNIVISION
10/14/16
6:46:44 PM - 6:49:10 PM EST | 2 MIN 25 SEC
JORGE RAMOS, ANCHOR, UNIVISION: Argentina looks like it is following the steps of other countries that have let themselves be seduced by an invitation to participate in what has been called “birth tourism”. Miami doctors arrived to promote the initiative in that country, and the hook to catch clients is that the baby obtain United States citizenship by virtue of being born in this country. Gustavo Mariel is in Buenos Aires with the explanation by the promoters of this medical service.
GUSTAVO MARIEL, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: Doctors Wladimir Lawrence and Francisco Cruz arrived to Buenos Aires to contact Argentinean women that want to give birth in the United States. They came to launch in Argentina what is already a success in Brazil, their website “Have a baby in Miami.”
DR. WLADIMIR LORENTZ: We offer a service for people from other countries to use the obstetric and pediatric services in Miami to have their kids.
GUSTAVO MARIEL, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: The service includes medical attention before and after giving birth, done at two of the best hospitals in Miami at a cost of approximately $11,000 for natural birth and $14,000 for a C-section.
DR. WLADIMIR LORENTZ: Some years ago we started with Brazil and we’ve done more than 50 births.
GUSTAVO MARIEL, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: Medical experts say that there are many reasons for Latin American couples choosing to have their babies in the United States, but the main one is giving United States citizenship to their newborn, which can be beneficial in the future.
DR. FRANSCISCO CRUZ: Their children will have access to the country when they are 18 years old if they want to come to study or if they want to enjoy certain benefits like being able to work in the United States without having to apply for a work permit.
GUSTAVO MARIEL, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: Birth tourism, as this practice is called, is completely legal in the United States as long as the future mother travels with a tourist visa and follows the law.
GUSTAVO MARIEL, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: The subject injected itself into the United States’ presidential campaign when candidate Donald Trump said these babies should not be U.S. citizens because they represent a burden for the country. But these doctors say that is not the case with their patients, who are of high economic levels.
DR. WLADIMIR LORENTZ: I emphasize this with patients that it is important to pay all your bills before returning to your home country.
GUSTAVO MARIEL, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: “Have My Baby in Miami” already had its first birth by an Argentinean woman last September, Giselle gave birth to Teo. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Univision.
