New York hotel pioneers birth tourism (unbelievable)

Breaking! Travel News.com ^ | 06/10/2010 | Staff

Posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:08:16 AM by OldDeckHand

A New York hotel is staking its claim to have invented a new hospitality niche – birth tourism. The Marmara Manhattan offers “an exclusive package for new mothers that wish to give birth in the USA”, with the additional bonus of the newborn child gaining US citizenship.

The hotel, which is part of the Turkish hospitality chain, exploits the 14th amendment to the US constitution, which states that all children born on American soil “are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside”.

The Marmara Manhattan, which is located in New York’s Upper East Side, told The Times: “What we offer is simply a one-bedroom suite accommodation for $5,100, plus taxes, for a month, with airport transfer, baby cradle and a gift set for the mother.” There are also medical fees of about £20,500.

However the price is a cheap and easy one to pay for US citizenship. Many will eventually use the newborn - known as an “anchor baby” - as a stepping stone for the immigration of extended family.

The hotel has so far sold 15 of the packages.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the practice is entirely legal as long as the women can pay their medical bills.

However there are noises being made in Washington to close the loophole. Gary Miller, a Republican congressman, told The Times: “They come to this country and have babies. The children are citizens. The children are eligible to go to school.

They receive food stamps and social programmes. The American taxpayers are paying for it.

Key source markets include Hong Kong, South Korea and Turkey, where a number of travel agencies specialise in the birth tourism market.

“Many people say they are doing it because they want their kids to get a cheaper education and not deal with visa issues when they grow up,” said Levant Bas, of the Istanbul-based operator Gurib Tourism. “We have a package that covers everything from the flight and city tours to accommodation for several months and hospital expenses.
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: anchorbaby; citizenship; nyc; turkey
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Free Republic Threads
We have GOT to fix our immigration laws. And, if it takes a Constitutional Amendment to fix the judicial interpretation of the 14th Amendment, then that's what we need.

I can't believe a great majority of Americans aren't completely against this kind of crap.
1 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:08:17 AM by OldDeckHand
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To: OldDeckHand

I think it is a fantastic idea.

Because it will get some of our congressmen off their asses and get the 14th changed, repealed or modified by law.

2 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:10:33 AM by old curmudgeon
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To: OldDeckHand

What a tragedy it would be if that hotel burned to the ground.

3 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:10:36 AM by La Lydia
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To: OldDeckHand

To bad Obama’s Mama could not have taken advantage of this.

4 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:12:31 AM by outofstyle (Anti-socialist)
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To: OldDeckHand

This is news?

South Koreans have been doing this since the end of the Korean war, for pete’s sake!

5 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:16:09 AM by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: OldDeckHand

Families that can afford and pay $30K medical bills aren’t a threat to our budget, let’s be honest.

Those that come and give birth at our expense are.

6 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:18:08 AM by mainsail that
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To: OldDeckHand

This country is just too damn stupid to survive. Uncle Sam is now Uncle Sap.

7 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:19:07 AM by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
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To: OldDeckHand

No other other country on earth puts up with this corruption.

8 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:19:36 AM by FormerACLUmember ("Subtlety is not going to win this fight": NJ Governor Chris Christie)
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To: OldDeckHand
"I can't believe a great majority of Americans aren't completely against this kind of crap. "

Don't you realize that what we think and want anymore does not matter.

America belongs to the world...wrestled from those greedy White people who founded it.
9 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:19:43 AM by blam
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To: OldDeckHand

10 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:23:13 AM by Diogenesis (Article IV - Section 4 - The United States shall protect each of them against Invasion)
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To: mainsail that
"Families that can afford and pay $30K medical bills aren’t a threat to our budget, let’s be honest."

Perhaps not. But, they certainly could be a threat to our national security. I would point out that this is a Turkish owned hotel change. I would also point out that one of the flotilla thugs was a man who was born in the US to Turkish parents who were here getting an education. He left at the age of two, never to return. But, he is considered a US citizen, or so has been claimed in media reports.

A genuine US passport is a VERY valuable commodity, especially to people who wish to do us harm.
11 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:24:12 AM by OldDeckHand
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To: OldDeckHand
the author of the Citizenship Clause—described the clause as excluding American Indians who maintain their tribal ties, and "persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers." He was supported by other senators, including Edgar Cowan, Reverdy Johnson, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lyman Trumbull.[6] Howard further stated the term jurisdiction meant "the same jurisdiction in extent and quality as applies to every citizen of the United States now"[6] and that the United States possessed a "full and complete jurisdiction" over the person described in the amendment.[7][8][6] Other senators, including Senator John Conness,[9] supported the amendment, believing citizenship should cover all children born in the United States.

The operative word here is subject to the jurisdiction and were born.
12 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:25:32 AM by org.whodat
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To: mainsail that
Typo alert

hotel change = hotel chain
13 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:25:40 AM by OldDeckHand
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To: org.whodat
"The operative word here is subject to the jurisdiction and were born. "

Yes, I am aware of the comments on this subject by the Amendments principle authors. Unfortunately, their opinions have been mooted by the opinions of several Supreme Court decisions. While there are some constitutional scholars and attorneys that believe this could be remedied with simple legislation, I would say that the prevailing wisdom, even in conservative legal think-tanks, is that it will take a constitutional amendment to fix, at this point.
14 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:28:40 AM by OldDeckHand
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To: OldDeckHand
I had the legal argument against your statement, but it is in my crashed computer, but it is on mark.
15 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:34:18 AM by org.whodat
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To: org.whodat
"I had the legal argument against your statement, but it is in my crashed computer, but it is on mark. "

I've read most of the articles in the legal journals. I'm not saying that they aren't without merit, but so long as Kennedy is on the Court instead of a more orthodox conservative, I think that as a practical matter, it's going to take a Constitutional Amendment.
16 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:36:02 AM by OldDeckHand
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To: OldDeckHand
In 1898, the Supreme Court in United States v. Wong Kim Ark declared that the Fourteenth Amendment adopted the common-law definition of birthright citizenship. Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller's dissenting opinion, however, argued that birthright citizenship had been repealed by the principles of the American Revolution and rejected by the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment. Nonetheless, the decision conferred birthright citizenship on a child of legal residents of the United States. Although the language of the majority opinion in Wong Kim Ark is certainly broad enough to include the children born in the United States of illegal as well as legal immigrants, there is no case in which the Supreme Court has explicitly held that this is the unambiguous command of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Based on the intent of the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment, some believe that Congress could exercise its Section 5 powers to prevent the children of illegal aliens from automatically becoming citizens of the United States. An effort in 1997 failed in the face of intense political opposition from immigrant rights groups. Apparently, the question remains open to the determination of the political and legal processes.

Edward Erler is Professor of Political Science at California State University, San Bernadino.
17 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:39:40 AM by org.whodat
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To: OldDeckHand

Korea has universal, cumpulsory military service (draft). Wealthy (and some not so wealthy) Koreans have been having their babies in LA or Honolulu just in case there might be a shooting war 18-25 years down the road.

18 posted on Friday, June 11, 2010 10:41:40 AM by moose-matson (I keep it in my head)