I haven't heard the term birth tourism used frequently but the National Public Radio (NPR) today aired a story discussing birth tourism.
Ted Hilton is the architect of a move that would prevent illegal immigrant families with U.S. born children from accessing temporary financial aid and job search services in California.
Hilton argues that such access encourages and maintains birth tourism; as such the U.S. government should bar illegal immigrants' offspring from citizenship status. Parents currently qualify based on their (citizen) children's needs.
If the measure passes, parents would have to provide government issued identification before they can obtain a birth certificate for their newborn.
I am happy to leave the debate to our lawmakers and political pundits, but I can't resist saying that children do not choose where they are born; I did not choose to be born in Zimbabwe.
The U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the U.S." It is not illegal for a woman to give birth in the U.S.
I digress!
This blog is about my immigration journey - which began in the late-1990s - from Zimbabwe to the United States of America. I am sharing my experiences with the objective of helping individuals who, similarly to me, may find the immigration process impermeable. I am not an attorney and the contents of this blog do not constitute legal advice.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
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1 comment:
It is interesting to know that such issues have been considered, I cant not help but question , would denying a necessity such as financial aid be a better means of doing away the the problem of illegal immigrant families?It appears that it such measures would become problems i.e discrimination
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