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Washington, D.C. (July 26, 2024) – In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Emma Waters, a Senior Research Associate at the Heritage Foundation, joins Mark Krikorian, the Center’s Executive Director, to discuss the recent development of international commercial surrogacy, which creates tremendous potential for immigration fraud and exploitation and poses a national security risk.
International commercial surrogacy refers to the process by which foreign nationals contract with surrogates in the United States to have a child on their behalf. While this child is subsequently raised in a foreign country, the child is granted U.S. citizenship by virtue of their birth here, making it easier for the parents of this child to eventually obtain U.S. citizenship. This system is unique to the United States, as other Western countries either ban international surrogacy or do not have birthright citizenship.
Waters states that international commercial surrogacy is a “situation of immigration fraud as well as a national security risk.” The most common demographic of foreign nationals who come to the U.S. for surrogacy are Chinese men, and thus this form of birth tourism allows children who are raised in China and shaped by CCP influence to obtain U.S. citizenship, posing a threat to U.S. national security.
To prevent this form of birth tourism, Waters emphasizes that U.S. immigration laws need to be updated to reflect technological advancements in surrogacy, childbirth, etc. She points to recent examples of nations, such as Nepal and India, which have successfully restricted commercial surrogacy. She also highlights the importance of publishing information surrounding international commercial surrogacy, such as state records regarding the number of surrogacy contracts in each state and the country of origin of the contracting parents.
Waters and Krikorian agree that once information regarding the abuses in the international commercial surrogacy industry becomes available, it will be possible for Congress and state governments to take action against this particularly troublesome form of birth tourism.
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