The Governor of the Northern Marianas, Eloy Inos and the CNMI delegate to the US Congress, Gregorio Kilili Sablan, want to put a halt to the practice of pregnant tourists visiting the CNMI so they can give birth to children who will acquire U.S. citizenship.
Both leaders say Saipan in particular has been receiving hundreds of pregnant Chinese tourists who give birth there so that children automatically become U.S. citizens.
They say they are encouraged by recent efforts to curb what has been called birth tourism.
The men applaud the U.S. Attorney's Office's recent successful prosecution of an individual who had made a business of bringing Chinese women in an advanced state of pregnancy to the CNMI, 'so their babies could be born with the benefit of automatic U.S. citizenship.'
They have urged the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to encourage Customs and Border Protection agents to deny entry to anyone suspected of attempting to come into the Northern Marianas for this purpose.
