Debate Over Birthright Citizenship Aims at 'Baby Tourists'

Aug. 4, 2010— -- The battle against so-called "baby tourism" seemed to get a new warrior after remarks made by Sen. Lindsey Graham during an appearance last week on Fox News.

Graham proposed to change the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which grants American citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. As the law now stands, pregnant women -- so-called baby tourists -- can travel to the U.S. to give birth and then return home with their children, who would still be U.S. citizens.

"Birthright citizenship, I think, is a mistake. ... People come here to have babies. They come here to drop a child. It's called 'drop and leave.' To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, have a child and that child's automatically an American citizen," said Graham, a South Carolina Republican.

"That shouldn't be the case. That attracts people here for all the wrong reasons," he said. The concern is these so-called "anchor babies" will then sponsor their families for legal residency -- albeit 21 years later.

There is an industry of travel agencies and hotel chains catering to "baby tourists" -- but just how large is it?

The Marmara Manhattan, a Turkish-owned luxury hotel in New York City, markets birth tourism packages to pregnant women abroad, luring more than a dozen expectant guests and their families to the U.S. last year.

"What we offer is simply a one-bedroom suite accommodation for $7,750, plus taxes, for a month, with airport transfer, baby cradle and a gift set for the mother," Marmara Hotel spokeswoman Alexandra Ballantine said.

The hotel estimates the total cost of the package at $45,000; most women make medical arrangements on their own.

"Guests arrange and pay for these by themselves," Ballantine said of hospital costs that can approach $30,000.