Ending birthright citizenship has been an objective for many American conservatives for years and was a plank in President Donald Trump's campaign.
But now some liberals are demanding an end to birthright citizenship – because they learned it applies to Russians born in the United States.
An NBC story exposing "birth tourism" following months of investigations shows having children with American citizenship has become a status symbol for Russian women.
"In Moscow, it's a status symbol to have a Miami-born baby, and social media is full of Russian women boasting of their little americantsy," claims the article.
A recent story in the virulently anti-Trump Daily Beast also found many Russians women rent condos owned by the Trump Organization.
The publication said:
"While Trump rails against U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, his Florida properties have become a playground for birth tourists from Russia's upper crust. The Daily Beast has discovered several companies are advertising rentals in Trump properties to expectant Russian parents. While the Trump Organization does not directly profit from subleases of privately owned condos, it does benefit from Russian patronage of the nearby Trump International Beach Resort. (The Trump Organization did not return requests comment.)"
Many Chinese women also have been flocking to give birth in the United States to give their children American citizenship. Most of the families involved have no intention of working in the United States or paying U.S. taxes.
However, citizenship is a lucrative benefit for their children, allowing them to enter the country at will, study there and possibly even secure residency for relatives through "family reunification" policies.
Still, the negative tone of the coverage about birthright citizenship contrasts with President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. Progressives who typically welcome more liberal immigration laws are especially angry about the offspring of Russians becoming American citizens.
That's one the reason Russia selected Trump for president, an easy way to allow more Russian to live in this country...and what do you say Trumputin?
— MysticFace (@rodzmariel31) January 10, 2018
Wow
— Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) January 10, 2018
Putin's sending over his baby mommas to infiltrate the U.S. with Moscow babies, while the President is mumbling the wrong words to the National Anthem on national television. We're about to be the United States of Kremlin real soon. https://t.co/KJMf8Kgb1R
— X (@XLNB) January 10, 2018
Why are Russians being allowed to give birth in Florida?
They only come to give birth, Trump is against birthright citizenship.
GOP wants to deport those that can make a difference now.
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 https://t.co/BmNTqCveRP— BlackMountain (@DBlack_Mountain) January 10, 2018
Many Democrats have opposed birthright citizenship for anyone.
For example, former Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, in a 1993 speech, blasted birthright citizenship as something no "sane" country would do .
"If you break our laws by entering this country without permission and give birth to a child, we reward that child with U.S. citizenship and guarantee of full access to all public and social services this society provides," he complained. "And that's a lot of services. Is it any wonder that two-thirds of the babies born at taxpayer expense at county-run hospitals in Los Angeles are born to illegal alien mothers?"
However, like most other Democrats, Reid later changed his position, as the descendants of Third World immigrants have become an important part of the Democratic coalition.
A leaked memo from the left wing Center for American Progress declares the so-called "Dreamers," illegal immigrants brought to the United States at a young age, are "critical" to the Democrats' future electoral prospects.
For the same reason, some conservatives on Twitter wryly suggested Republicans use the left's hatred of Russians to push for an end to birthright citizenship for everyone.
Horrific. Subversive. A blatant attempt to game our insane immigration laws. We need to rescind birthright citizenship immediately and put an end to this! pic.twitter.com/sVLwzcR0zA
— J Burton (@JBurtonXP) January 10, 2018
Liberals now gonna turn on birthright citizenship https://t.co/NH12aD0eK1
— Scott Greer (@ScottMGreer) January 10, 2018
Hahaha, the media is against birthright citizenship when it applies to the Russians that they hate so much.
Replace the word "Russians" with any other ethnicity and people would be screaming how racist this article is. https://t.co/90yVfRDQUf
— Virginia Dare (@vdare) January 10, 2018