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root_axis 2 days ago

Why is it insane?

consensus1 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Some woman who is 8 months pregnant comes to the US on a tourist visa and gives birth, then goes home with the baby. And then somehow that kid gets automatic US citizenship. And it applies even if the mother is not even legally allowed in the country. And you think that is not insane?

fckgw 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think it's a "problem" that justifies taking the rights away from millions of Americans, no.

root_axis 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

An 8 months pregnant woman would typically be denied entry during immigration processing. It doesn't seem like a big deal.

fmobus 2 days ago | parent [-]

And that's assuming they can even board their flight. Airlines don't really like carrying extremely pregnant people because it's very risky.

Windchaser 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> And you think that is not insane?

I think there would be a real problem with creating a class of people who live here their entire lives and aren't citizens. And then their children also live here and aren't citizens, and their grandchildren, etc.

It's not that birthright citizenship is ideal, but it prevents some other, bigger problems.

goatlover 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why is it a problem to have US citizens being raised elsewhere? What bad thing is being caused by this?

wat10000 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It’s no skin off my back. Why should I give a shit?

Chu4eeno 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm not him, but it creates some perverse incentives (like chinese billionaires who pay american surrogates to get implanted with dozens of their kids who get american citizenship).

https://fortune.com/article/chinese-billionaire-xu-bo-father... might be an outlier, but it's still weird, especially since the US is the only country that has this.

awepofiwaop 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

> especially since the US is the only country that has this

I see this said in real life as well, but it's just false. Plenty of countries in North America do this, including Canada.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli#North_America

> Canada: Subsection 3(2) of the Citizenship Act states that Canadian citizenship by birth in Canada – including Canadian airspace and territorial waters – is granted to a child born in Canada even if neither parent was a Canadian citizen or permanent resident except if either parent was a diplomat, in service to a diplomat, or employed by an international agency of equal status to a diplomat. However, if neither parent was a diplomat, the nationality or immigration status of the parents does not matter.

Jtsummers 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> especially since the US is the only country that has this.

Except it's not.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/31/us-style-...

It's a minority of countries that have rules like the US, but the US is not unique in this regard and there's no reason to keep repeating that lie.

triceratops 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You're saying billionaires are deliberately hanging American taxation of worldwide income around their kids necks?

root_axis 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This doesn't seem like a major problem. Immigration officials are already sensitive to birth-tourism and have had discretion to deny entry to obviously pregnant tourists even long before Trump.

Beyond that, if you're a billionaire you can just fast track a path to citizenship with a gold card.

toast0 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Chinese billionaires are bound to do weird shit. I don't think we should amend our constitution to try to prevent that.

If the problem is 'birth tourism' and subsequent immigration visas for relatives of the US national child, changing the immigration policies seems like a better fix. Something like requiring a sponsoring citizen to reside in the US for a period before sponsorship. A citizen sponsoring a visa for a parent already has to be 21.

I'm not sure I can be that upset by people who want to immigrate, so they put a plan in motion that takes 21+ years to reach fruition. Although that does jump the line if you were eligible for F3 or F4 and your country of origin is Mexico... the priority date on those is currently 2001. [1]

I want more people in the US who can do long term planning, not less. :p

[1] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/v...