Barack Obama handed Communist China a loophole in 2009 and they've been running it ever since.
That single policy change – visa-free access for Chinese nationals to a tiny US territory in the Pacific – quietly turned an island of 50,000 Americans into a maternity ward for the CCP elite.
Now the bill is coming due, and the Supreme Court has to decide if anything can stop it.
How Obama's 2009 Visa Waiver Launched a Chinese Birth Tourism Empire
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands sits northeast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. Before 2009, it was mostly known for beaches and the remnants of World War II battles. Then Obama created a categorical parole program letting Chinese nationals enter without a tourist visa – no State Department vetting, no background check, no questions asked.
Eight Chinese babies were born there in 2009.
By 2018, that number had exploded to nearly 600 in a single year – more Chinese births on the island than births to the local indigenous population.
Over a thousand companies in China now sell CNMI birth packages. "Economy" options start at $14,000 and include a basic apartment.
The "Supreme Type" package from Shanghai-based Global Baby 8 runs $45,000 and comes with a luxury villa, personal escort, three shopping trips per week, a private island tour, and a postpartum nanny. Hospital delivery runs another $10,000 – paid in cash, no insurance discounts. For an extra $1,000, brokers handle the newborn's US citizenship paperwork.
"Create beautiful memories while having an American baby," Global Baby 8's website reads.
One Chinese father showed up at the Saipan hospital in a cowboy hat to meet his new American son. The caption on the company's promotional photo calls the baby a "Yankee tyke."
It's a $100,000-per-family industry, according to Senate testimony by investigative journalist Peter Schweizer – and CCP state media openly advertises it.
Birthright Citizenship Loophole Heads to the Supreme Court as Anchor Babies Hit Voting Age
Schweizer, author of The Invisible Coup, told the Senate Judiciary Committee this month that roughly 1 million US citizens are currently being raised in Communist China.
These aren't the children of political dissidents who fled Beijing. Their parents are Chinese elites – government tax officials, executives at China Telecom and Bank of China, propaganda officials, Public Security Bureau officers.
Birth tourism client lists obtained by Schweizer show companies like Star Baby Care and USA Happy Baby catering specifically to CCP-connected families.
"These are not political dissidents," Schweizer testified. "These are military officers, people from the Ministry of Propaganda, people that are high-ranking officials in the Chinese Communist Party."
They can vote. As US citizens, they can cast ballots in American elections – including by mail from China.
At age 21, each of those passport holders can start pulling the whole family over. That's how chain migration works — one birth tourist baby is the legal key that eventually unlocks permanent residency for parents, siblings, and beyond.
The Immigration Accountability Project puts it in numbers: 77 percent of all new green card holders in 2024 got here through family sponsorship chains.
"If their family could afford the prices charged for this birth tourism scheme, there's a good chance they can afford a residence in the US," said Chris Chmielenski, president of the nonprofit Immigration Accountability Project. "Most wealthy Chinese nationals tend to have connections to the government there."
Republican lawmakers aren't waiting., 34 GOP members sent letters to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum demanding a full accounting – how many births, how many chain migration petitions, how many children now approaching voting age.
Senators Rick Scott, Jim Banks, and Markwayne Mullin called it "an imminent national security vulnerability."
Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, who introduced the One Nation, One Visa Policy Act on March 5 with Chip Roy, put it plainly: "US citizenship is valuable, not something foreign holidaymakers should be able to pick up like a hotel gift-shop souvenir."
Former CNMI Governor Arnold Palacios – before his death last July – warned that Chinese birth tourism had overwhelmed the territory's only public hospital, the Commonwealth Health Center, which couldn't track high-risk pregnancies because there was no documentation on incoming mothers.
The Chief OB/GYN at that hospital, Dr. Geoffrey Fraiche, told the New York Post the demand was so intense that wealthy Chinese parents refused to leave even when their unborn child showed life-threatening anomalies.
One family's baby had a dangerous condition Fraiche's facility couldn't treat. He told them to leave. They refused – the US passport was worth more to them than the risk.
They flew a private air ambulance into Saipan, loaded the mother and newborn, and airlifted them back to China. Fraiche said the baby would have died if they had stayed. That's how badly they wanted what Obama handed them for free.
The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara on April 1 – the case challenging Trump's Day One executive order to end birthright citizenship for children of foreign tourists and illegal aliens.
Every federal court to review the order has blocked it. With a conservative majority on the bench, the ruling expected by July is the last realistic chance to close what Obama opened 17 years ago.
Obama opened the door in 2009. Biden kicked it open wider in 2024. The first wave of those passport holders hits voting age in 2030.
April 1 is the Supreme Court's chance to finally close what Barack Obama built.
Sources:
- Chadwick Moore, "US territory turned tropical maternity ward has produced thousands of 'American' babies for parents living in China," New York Post, March 19, 2026.
- Senators Rick Scott, Jim Banks, Markwayne Mullin, Letter to Secretaries Noem and Burgum, January 15, 2026.
- Amy Howe, "Supreme Court will hear birthright citizenship case on April 1," SCOTUSblog, January 30, 2026.
- Peter Schweizer, Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, March 10, 2026, via Courthouse News Service.
- Rep. Tom Tiffany, "EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep Goes After Loophole Allowing Chinese to Abuse Birthright Citizenship in Northern Mariana Islands," tiffany.house.gov, February 14, 2025.
- "CCP Exploiting Birth Tourism in America on an 'Industrial' Scale," American Thought Leaders podcast, February 4, 2026.