Midori Nishida, a Japanese citizen, had an unexpected extra hurdle when trying to board her flight from Hong Kong to Saipan, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean: she had to take a pregnancy test.
Prior to boarding, Nishida was escorted to the restroom and and handed a pregnancy test. If she wanted to board the flight, she had to urinate on it.
The problem, if you want to call it that, is birthright citizenship in the USA. Saipan is part of the Northern Mariana Islands and in 2018 more babies were born to tourists than to residents. Saipan is open to Chinese citizens without a visa. Many are using that visa-free loophole to gain U.S. citizenship for their children. The number of babies born to Chinese tourists has risen from 12 in 2009 to 575 in 2018.
Pregnant foreigners are allowed in the USA, even if they deliberately intend to travel to the USA to give birth. But they cannot lie to immigration officials about it and they must show they have sufficient funds to pay for the birth and a return ticket. Visa-free stays in Saipan for Chinese citizens is limited to 14 days (reduced in 2017 from 45 days). The problem thus also becomes the health risk of a woman traveling so late in her pregnancy.
So why did Hong Kong Express check Nishida? Because if passengers are denied entry into the USA, airlines are fined and must pay for transport back to the city of origin.
Nishida was chosen for additional screening because she had indicated she was not pregnant in a check-in questionnaire, but appeared—to staff at least—to resemble a pregnant in woman in body shape.
The test was negative, Nishida was embarrassed, and she boarded her flight as planned.
HK Express defended its general policy of screening potentially pregnant passengers last fall, stating:
“In response to concerns raised by authorities in Saipan, we took actions on flights to Saipan from February 2019 to help ensure U.S. immigration laws were not being undermined.”
But after the uproar from the incident, has immediately suspended the practice of requiring pregnant-looking female passengers to submit to screening.
CONCLUSION
This is a tough issue, that affects airlines but implicates a deeper political discussion. Should foreigners be allowed to take advantage of birthright citizenship in the USA by deliberately traveling to the USA to give birth? How can airlines be more sensitive to U.S. immigration concerns while respecting the privacy and dignity of passengers like Nishida?
It’s been a big industry for a while. Lots of businesses catering to wealthy Russians, Chinese, and others by offering what you could call “birthright tourism” in the US. These people don’t want the citizenship for themselves, nor are they hoping to produce anchor babies, but they definitely want to secure the nationality for their kids.
It’s also starting to become big in Canada too.
Mmmm didn’t get tested few months back when I visited Saipan.
Maybe they don’t test males
Anyway as foreign pregnant woman I would gonout of my way to mot have my child delivered in the US. The future tax implications for the child are onerous if not outright disgusting as only the US and Eritrea have the nasty habit of taxing citizens instead of residents.
Imagine tour child living in China or Russia and having to pay taxes in the US.
I would save my child the horror.
If you’re going to have your kid born in a country that still practices Jus Soli. Canada might be a better option. How do they tax citizens compared to the US government?
@Aaron
Most countries tax on residency.
Few countries have territorial taxation.
Only US and Eritrea tax on citizenship.
In terms of preference, territorial is the best, tax on citizenship the worst.
So for people looking to give their kids a good passport, having them born in Canada would be better than having them born in the US.
I have never understood why people come to the usa. You would be better getting an eu citizenship because they agree socialists and have better support structure.
Unless you think you will come to the usa and work hard and do well. In which case i don’t understand why the usa wants to keep these people out.
White supremacists say they want only whites in the usa but the party that they support, republicans, make it hard for young whites to have kids and have family. Weird flexing by stupid idiots.
@Debit – USA so much better . Huge country , Tons of Jobs, infinite Earning Potential ( ie. becoming Rich ) , great centers of learning , Colleges , Institutions . Most of new technology happens in the US first usually , and you can get houses as big as a Park . If you want to do something in your life USA is the place to be . EU is the opposite which is why so much migration happened from EU to USA in the last century.
Birthright citizenship is a policy designed for the 1860s and 1870s to remedy a specific situation. Any judge with sense would not let it stand today but of course there are very few judges with sense. Pretty much every other country in the world does not have birthright citizenship as it promotes illegal immigration and the creation of citizens not intended by the public. It literally destroys the genetic fabric of a country. Imagine if Japan with 120 million Japanese had 40 million Indians, blacks, whites or Arabs flood the country in two generations. That would mean the destruction of the Japan. I’m not Japanese or Asian but I welcome having a group of people distinct to visit as a tourist (although they need to reform their legal system as anyone can be held without charge for 21 days). Same applies for any country in the world and that’s why birthright citizenship is a crime against humanity.
Except the usa followed official racist policy and only allowed whites to immigrate and settle in the usa till about 1960s until Lyndon Johnson got rid of that time. It is not just by accident that the USA is predominantly white, you are all products of racism. So while it would be convenient for white dumbfuxks to talk about immigration laws we need to address the racism that led to this racial imbalance in the first place.
I propose 10% extra income tax on all whites to be distributed/ spent in non white communities for general social upliftment. This should be for next 20 years.
So the lady was fat, not pregnant. Usually, the other way around
Really interesting post. I never knew that pregnant women were allowed to come to the US specifically to give birth.
Funny. Fat foreign woman accuse if lying, while fat american women considered as having disability. Hahahha….
Roger Adams wrote: “It literally destroys the genetic fabric of a country.”
Countries don’t have a “genetic fabric,” and to suggest they do is the literal definition of white nationalism. Take your odious, racist views somewhere else.