GOP Congressman Sounds the Alarm on Little-Known US Citizenship ‘Loophole’ Being Exploited by the Chinese
Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican from Wisconsin, has expressed concerns about a loophole that allows Chinese nationals to visit the Northern Mariana islands without a visa. He addressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a letter urging immediate action to close this loophole, which was established in January 2024 under President Biden’s management, though it originally began with an initiative from former President Obama in 2009. tiffany argues that this loophole enables Chinese citizens to bypass legal tourist visa requirements, contributing to the rise of “birth tourism,” where foreign nationals travel to the U.S. territory to give birth, thus granting U.S. citizenship to their children.
The informal birth tourism market has dramatically escalated, with annual births to foreign nationals soaring from fewer than 10 in 2009 to nearly 600 by 2018—transgressing the number of births by legal U.S. residents in the region.Tiffany emphasized the security risks associated with this policy, especially given the Northern Mariana Islands’ proximity to a U.S. naval base. He points to the absence of clear benefits from this loophole and questions why such a policy was maintained. Additionally, Tiffany asserts that Chinese nationals should face the same entry requirements as those visiting other parts of the U.S., citing that the existing policy poses a national security threat amid the ongoing geopolitical tensions with China.
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany is raising the alarm over a loophone that lets Chinese nationals take trips to the Northern Mariana Islands without a visa.
Tiffany sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem asking her to immediately shut down the loophole letting citizens from the adversarial nation visit the U.S. territory in the western Pacific Ocean, according to a copy of the letter d with The Daily Caller last week.
The rule in question that allows the loophole was put into effect in January 2024 under former President Joe Biden.
First implemented by former President Barack Obama back in 2009, the rule allows “categorical parole” to Chinese nationals who want to enter the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The lawmaker told Noem that Chinese citizens “were able to sidestep the legal requirement that they first obtain a tourist visa before entering the CNMI.”
As a result, more Chinese nationals were able to partake in “birth tourism,” with births from foreigners rising from less than 10 in 2009 to almost 600 in 2018.
In fact, the practice of foreign nationals giving birth in Saipan, the capital city, became so widespread that “such births exceeded the number of births to legal U.S. residents there in recent years,” Tiffany warned.
There are fewer than 50,000 people living on the Northern Mariana Islands, meaning that such a trend would be rather noticeable to the locals.
The loophole created an entire birth tourism market through which some Chinese women fork over thousands of dollars for the chance to give birth on American territory.
That’s because the children can later attain green cards for their entire families as a result.
Then there are the security concerns with allowing Chinese nationals to enter the territory, which is home to U.S. Naval Base Marianas, without a visa.
DHS must close the loophole that allows Chinese nationals to enter the Northern Mariana Islands without a visa. This is being exploited for birth tourism, granting U.S. citizenship to children born there.
📺WATCH: pic.twitter.com/pNwM6emo11
— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) February 20, 2025
“Set aside the birthright citizenship part of it, it’s allowing people to gain citizenship that are coming from communist China,” Tiffany continued.
“In short, nationals of the [People’s Republic of China] should be required to meet the same standard to visit the CNMI that they must meet to visit any other part of the United States,” the lawmaker said.
Why exactly Obama and Biden saw fit to create this loophole and allow it to continue is a mystery.
There are zero tangible benefits to having a birth tourism industry arise in one of our territories, let alone a security situation ripe for abuse by our greatest rival on the global stage.
The letter comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order laying down the law with respect to birthright citizenship, essentially saying the Fourteenth Amendment was not meant to grant citizenship to any person who happens to be born on our soil.
That common-sense policy is currently working its way through the courts.
In any case, there’s no question that the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is threatened by the birth tourism racket, and that our nation as a whole is less safe as a result of the policy.
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