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New Jersey Hospital Selling Citizenship? Facility Reportedly Targeting Russian Women To Give Birth In U.S. [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 13:26 PST, Sep 7, 2016

Is a New Jersey hospital selling U.S. citizenship? That is the disturbing allegation that has been levied against Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center and its so-called “AmeriMama” program. Reportedly, the New Jersey hospital has been advertising its services to pregnant Russian women, promising moms-to-be “superior medical care” at a premium cost, usually $10,000 or more.

In addition to receiving medical care that they may not be able to get in their native Russia, women targeted by the New Jersey hospital’s advertising also get something else. Something that has many people calling the AmeriMama program “birth tourism.” So, what is the secret benefit that Russian moms are reportedly reaping by paying thousands of dollars to give birth at a New Jersey hospital?

Their babies, reports Fox News, will become U.S. citizens. Like any baby born on American soil, the babies born to these Russian mothers, mothers deliberately targeted by the New Jersey hospital accused of selling U.S. citizenship, will be automatic U.S. citizens — as well as dual citizens of their mother’s native Russia.

“Childbirth in New York is the best investment in the future of your family!”

What does the hospital get out of the arrangement? Why, a tidy profit, of course. According to recent investigation into the New Jersey hospital, Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center has been aggressively targeting expectant Russian women to engage in some American birth tourism.

The New Jersey hospital has long been advertising its birthing services to potential Russian patients, and a recent report by New Jersey Spotlight shed some light on the disturbing practice that barely skirts U.S. immigration laws. This is because the New Jersey hospital accused of selling citizenship not only allegedly targets pregnant Russian women, but its AmeriMama program even promises to help with the baby’s citizenship papers, passports, and travel visas — for a fee.

[Image via AmeriMama.Ru]
And that fee doesn’t come cheap. Reportedly, AmeriMama birthing packages/fees run from $8,500 to $27,500, and those costs include both medical expenses and the charges for any documentation that the newborn baby may require to establish and prove its U.S. citizenship after being born in the New Jersey hospital.

“They claim they’re selling their hospital services, but the unspoken benefit of this is that the child gets a U.S. passport and U.S. citizenship.”

According to most experts that have looked into the allegations that the New Jersey hospital is selling citizenship, Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center isn’t technically breaking any immigration laws with its AmeriMama program. It’s not illegal for pregnant foreigners to come to America. It’s not illegal for hospitals to target foreign citizens to sell them treatment. Indeed, it’s very common for people from all over the world to come to the U.S. for medical treatment, because in many cases it is superior to what they can get in their country of origin. The New Jersey hospital facing accusations of selling U.S. citizenship seems to be on the right side of the law, even if its so-called birth tourism program is a bit on the questionable side.

“There is no clear law that prevents hospitals from establishing this business and promoting it abroad and there’s no law against a foreigner coming here for the specific purpose of having a baby.”

In fact, if anyone were to get in legal hot water for coming to the U.S. for the express purpose of giving birth on U.S. soil so their baby becomes a citizen, it would be the birth mother. Not the New Jersey hospital accused of selling U.S. citizenship.

That’s because, according to Jessica Vaughan, of the Center for Immigration Studies, when a foreign national travels to the U.S. to give birth, they often aren’t honest on their immigration paperwork. If so-called “birth tourists” who come to the New Jersey hospital to give birth don’t tell immigration the true reason for their visit to the U.S., that could constitute fraud and subject that person to investigation and prosecution by U.S. Homeland Security.

Since the news broke that the New Jersey hospital was allegedly selling U.S. citizenship, both the AmeriMama website (which was published in Russian) and the AmeriMama Facebook page have been taken offline. Further, the New Jersey hospital is refusing to respond to media requests for comment.

Reportedly, however, the AmeriMama program has netted the New Jersey hospital roughly $9 million in profits.

The idea that the New Jersey hospital is selling U.S. citizenship to Russian infants is particularly disturbing, because once the babies become U.S. citizens, it is possible that their parents can later use their children’s U.S. residency as a foothold to achieve U.S. residency and possibly citizenship themselves.

What do you think? Should birth tourism be legal? Should the Department of Homeland Security investigate the allegations that this New Jersey hospital is selling U.S. citizenship?

[Image via Shutterstock]

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