DHS tightens security in US territory over espionage and birth tourism worries

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in an Oct. 27 post to the Federal Register that it is closing a loophole which allowed Chinese nationals to exploit U.S. birthright citizenship, suspending a travel authorization used by Chinese nationals to travel to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), give birth there, and obtain U.S. citizenship for their children.

The Economic Vitality & Security Travel Authorization Program (EVS-TAP) for the CNMI “allows prescreened nationals of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to travel to the CNMI without a visa for temporary visits under specified conditions,” according to the Federal Register post.

Since the CNMI is an unincorporated territory of the U.S., children born there automatically obtain U.S. citizenship, regardless of the citizenship or immigration status of their parents.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) empowers DHS to terminate or suspend visa waiver programs for foreign nationals on a country-by-country basis for a number of reasons, such as when “visitors pose a risk to U.S. security, law enforcement, or immigration enforcement interests.”

According to the DHS post in the Federal Register, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin determined that there is “good cause for the suspension” of the CNMI EVS-TAP “because the United States is facing evolving and sophisticated threats which, combined with a significant number of [Chinese] nationals entering the CNMI under EVS-TAP, creates a significant risk to the security and law enforcement interests of the United States.”

In particular, the DHS notice warned that Chinese nationals would illegally travel from the CNMI to another U.S. territory: Guam. Onward travel to Guam poses a particular threat due to U.S. military installations in Guam and the potential for espionage committed by Chinese nationals.

Another concern, the DHS post said, is that of “birth tourism,” allowing Chinese nationals to “secure U.S. citizenship for children with no lasting ties to the United States.”

“While birth tourism has long been an issue in the CNMI, the availability of visa-exempt travel and reduced vetting under EVS-TAP may lower barriers to this practice,” the Federal Register notice said. “Birth tourism can strain medical infrastructure in the CNMI and harm local citizens. Additionally, birth tourism may also be utilized to facilitate long-term intelligence or espionage activities. Suspending EVS-TAP allows DHS to evaluate measures to mitigate this threat.”

Todd Bensman, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center and a former DHS official, told Zeale News that the Oct. 27 announcement is a “solid good start” but cautioned that “work remains to be done on closing this loophole permanently.”

“First, while this loophole suspension will help curtail birth tourism from mainland China, a perhaps more significant benefit is that it will reduce opportunities for Chinese espionage collection about a major U.S. military expansion in Guam,” he said. “Chinese ‘tourists’ have been known to smuggle their way from Saipan to Guam, where the expansion is occurring for potential war with China. That hole had to be plugged up.”

Bensman said that the DHS should also consider suspending the visa waiver program for Hong Kong residents, who are exempt from the suspension detailed in the Oct. 27 Federal Register notice.

“That hole must be plugged up as soon as is practicable to counter both espionage and birth tourism,” he said. “In the meantime, DHS must surge Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, and Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel and resources to hunt down all overstayers in CNMI and illegals who made their way Guam, as well as to enforce the new regulation.”