Immigration attorney Kyle Barella is pleased that GOP frontrunner Donald Trump brought the “anchor baby” discussion to the forefront, as Barella said this has become a big money business for companies that provide wealthy foreign mothers neonatal and delivery services in the United States, so their child can become a U.S. citizen.
Barella, founder of Barella Law, explained exclusively to Breitbart News that the birth right citizenship law – although legal – is being abused by these companies. According to Barella, poor pregnant immigrant mothers coming across the southern border aren’t the ones being targeted, but rather the companies are targeting wealthy foreigners from countries such as China and Russia, at times making $99,000 dollars per sale.
“The one that I know is called ‘Miami Mama.’ In all fairness to them – one, what they are doing is completely legal…and number two, they’re not the only ones. Just this morning I typed in Google…in Russian… “Birth in the U.S.A” … and there’s over 19,000 Google hits on giving birth in the U.S.A. for citizenship and there are quite a few companies that come up,” Barella explained.
Several companies — not just Miami Mama — came up by simply typing in Russian “Birth in the U.S.A” into a Google search. A few include: rod-v-miami.ru, www.rodivusa.com, and www.deliveryinusa.com.
“It’s not just the Russians. There are similar websites in Chinese, Spanish and Arabic,” Barella added.
Barella mainly used the company Miami Mama as an example, but reiterated it’s not the only company offering this type of service. Barella’s wife – who speaks Russian – helped him research the company website.
“It’s entirely in Russian … and basically what these companies do – and it’s not just Russian people, it’s Chinese people, it’s people from South America, wealthy people – so this is completely different from illegal immigrants coming over giving birth into the U.S.,” he explained. “This is completely legal and it’s wealthy immigrants who pay. The Standard Package for Miami Mama starts at $19,900 dollars and it goes all the way up to what’s called the Imperial Package, which is $99,000 dollars.”
Although Barella doesn’t work with these companies – and has not had any contact with Miami Mama – he explained the context behind this big moneymaking business.
“What the context is, is that these wealthy foreign families can pay to come over to the U.S. usually in their second trimester…they put them up in a hotel, they provide them with prenatal care… with a Russian doctor, which is – of course – in cahoots with this program because remember, they’re paying out of pocket – they’re not on U.S. insurance,” Barella explained. He added that he can’t confirm the doctors are in business with the company, but suspects this is the case.
He continued, “They give birth in one of the finest hospitals in Florida. While they’re here, they take tours, they’re provided a car service to be driven around to all the shopping in Miami, they give birth here, they’re children are now U.S. citizens – what do they do? – Then, they go back to Russia, they go back to Venezuela, they go back to China and they live there until their kids … what they do this mainly for is when their kids are of college age, they want them to come to university in the United States, that’s the main reason.”
Barella disagrees with this abuse of the law, explaining that most industrialized countries — with the exception of America and Canada — don’t permit birthright citizenship.
“I’ve always called for – and I don’t think its mean or anti-immigrant or racist – to call for an end to birthright citizenship because we’re the only country along with Canada and the developed world to have this rule. All the countries like the U.K., Ireland – they ended this,” Barella exclusively told Breitbart News.
“It’s not for people to just come here and then move back to their home country so their kid can come to school here 20 years down the road,” he added.
On the topic of how to amend the current law, Barella said he isn’t a constitutional lawyer – nor an expert in that field, but said it “certainly needs to be fixed.”
“There’s some constitutional lawyer that can get around it, because our Founding Fathers did not intend for wealthy Russian people to come over here and give birth in the U.S. – I mean that’s not what it was for,” he said of the current law.
Barella pointed out that the other industrialized countries that do not permit birthright citizenship aren’t labeled as “anti-immigrant.”
“Nobody’s harping at them,” he said, naming England, Ireland, France, Spain and Italy – among others – that don’t permit birthright citizenship. “You can’t go there and be born and get automatic citizenship.” Barella explained:
It’s not appropriate when there are companies out there that are basically providing this service for mothers to give birth in the U.S. specifically so their children can have U.S. citizenship. That’s where we run into a problem, The intention of birthright citizenship is for the child to adapt, assimilate, live and accept American culture and the American experience. The Founding Fathers didn’t intend for wealthy people to pay money in order to give birth in the U.S.A. – just to go back to their home country and one day send their child to an American university.
Barella offered a simple solution to this type of abuse of the current law.
“Children of illegals and tourists should not be granted automatic citizenship. Children of permanent residents (Green Card holders) should have that privilege. Children born to parents maintaing lawful non-immigrant status should have the option to obtain U.S. citizenship provided by their 18th birthday they lived 10 out of the past 18 years in the U.S. and maintained valid non-immigrant status.”