Agents responded to the call and found a pregnant 27-year-old Mexican woman who had crossed illegally into the United States. The woman, who was seven months pregnant, told agents that she had crossed the border with two men led by a smuggler. She had been walking for five or six days. The smuggler abandoned her when she became too exhausted to keep up with the rest of the group.

In the throws of labor and in severe pain, the agents transported the woman to the Freer station where Senior Border Patrol Agent Marisol Cantu tried to calm the woman down. It soon became clear that the there was no time to transport the woman to the hospital.

A border baby is born
Agent Cantu, a member of the Border Patrol Border Area Rescue Team (BART) and a trained emergency medical technician (EMT) recognized that the baby was crowning and caught the baby as she emerged from the birth canal. Agent Jerry L. Doyal, a former hospital corpsman in the Navy, pinched the umbilical cord with his fingers and gave the mother oxygen until an ambulance arrived. "I've never seen anyone that far along stranded in the desert," said Agent Doyal. Agent Jerry Cabriales, who is also a trained EMT, assisted in the delivery. The premature baby girl weighed less than two pounds and was named Sarai Marisol in honor of Agent Cantu. Mother and baby were both transported to a Corpus Christi hospital.

The baby is an American citizen because she was born on U.S. soil. However, it is uncertain whether mother and baby will stay in the U.S. or return to Mexico. While this story is heartwarming and highlights the rescue and EMT skills of Border Patrol agents, for many it also raises a controversial issue.

Our youngest citizens
Many pregnant women who live near Mexican border communities, or who migrate to border areas from the Mexican interior, wait until they begin labor and then cross legally into the United States using a border crossing card or “laser visa.” But instead of shopping, these women are crossing the border to deliver their babies. There are even clinics on the United States side that advertise in Mexico that they deliver babies, obtain birth certificates, passports, and associated paperwork for a set fee. The only hard and fast rule is that immigrants must be able to pay. There is evidence that this practice is not limited to areas near the Mexican border. In fact, thousands of pregnant South Korean women travel to the U.S. on tourist visas to give birth and obtain U.S. citizenship for their child—which for a male child is a means for avoiding the Korean military draft.

An industry has developed around this practice with travel agents specializing in “birth tours” and clinics providing post-natal care which includes transportation services. For those seeking entry into this country it is a small price to pay for legal entry and social service benefits that accrue with citizenship. Even if the child returns to the mother’s home country, at 21 years of age, he/she can sponsor other family members for immigration into the United States.

Rules for citizenship
Baby Sarai’s citizenship and the citizenship of the more than 200,000 babies born to illegal immigrants in this country is as a result of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads in part, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside."

Immigration policy pundits have long debated the interpretation of this clause and whether it should convey citizenship to anchor babies, so called because they act like an anchor that pulls the illegal alien mother and potentially other family members into permanent U. S. residency.

America follows the English common law rule of “right of soil.” Under this rule citizenship is determined by one’s place of birth. Anyone born in the United States or its territories (like Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam), are American citizens regardless of their parents’ citizenship status. The boundaries that determine citizenship are not complex. Those born within U.S. ports and harbors or within 12 nautical miles of U.S. borders are also American citizens. Even babies born on planes flying over the United States or its territories receive U.S. citizenship. The ship or plane’s country of origin makes no difference regarding citizenship.

The price of citizenship
Regardless of whether they come as tourists or cross the desert with a smuggler, delivering a child in the United States is the ultimate benefit. Families view citizenship as a gift that they can bestow on their children, opening avenues of education, employment, and an entrée into our way of life. The debate over whether these babies should be citizens will rage on but the important lesson to be derived is that many foreigners see great value in that which we may take for granted—United States citizenship. LK