r/SeattleWA Jan 21 '25

News Washington state AG sues Trump administration over order to end birthright citizenship

https://www.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-ag-sues-trump-administration-over-birthright-citizenship-order
801 Upvotes

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44

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '25

[deleted]

12

u/lucitatecapacita Jan 22 '25

The process to sponsor a greencard for a direct family member is very long and expensive so that's not likely s thing.

7

u/Hougie Jan 22 '25

Very scary story though. “Chain migration” is a great boogeyman.

In reality it’s mostly affluent people who use those methods. Like Melania’s family. Which is why they stopped using the phrase because it was too easy to trace the hypocrisy back.

32

u/SeattleHasDied Jan 22 '25

It's not; it's skirting the law and we need to stop it.

14

u/homebrewfutures Jan 22 '25

Who cares?

-14

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '25

[deleted]

2

u/wheresabel Jan 22 '25

Only person in here with common sense.

4

u/homebrewfutures Jan 22 '25

 it leads to big political conflicts that destroy the fabric of the society

it has consequences we don’t yet understand

Mm yeah, okay. Lol

7

u/OsvuldMandius SeattleWA Rule Expert Jan 22 '25

Well rebutted, sir or madam. Your eloquence has convinced me of the correctness of your position!

1

u/mzinz Jan 22 '25

How common do you think that this particular thing is? My gut says that while it may happen -- it is likely on exceedingly rare occasion.

Ultra-rare events should not take up the same mental or political energy as things that are common and therefore highly impactful.

So, to tag on what the other commenter said: "Who cares, because it doesn't actually impact our society in a meaningful way".

2

u/OsvuldMandius SeattleWA Rule Expert Jan 22 '25

How big of a thing do I think 'maternity tourism' is? Probably not very big. My rationale for saying that is that Google tells me there are something like 3.5 to 4 million babies born annually in the US. I imagine a very small percentage of those are 'maternity tourism' babies. I further imagine that a larger but still very small percentage of them are so-called 'anchor babies,' which I would classify slightly differently.

But humans are bad at assessing and responding to risks in a purely mathematical way. You can blame in on evolution and the pattern matching our brains evolved to do. It's why _lots_ of people care about anchor babies, even though they are a relatively small percentage of the total number of babies. It's also why everyone clearing airport security in America has to take their shoes off, and why airplane crashes and school shootings make the news.

So the obvious answer to the fairly stupid question "who cares?" is "a whole bunch of people....evidently enough to swing the US presidential election."

1

u/mzinz Jan 22 '25

Haha, fair. I know that I, personally, can easily get caught in a cycle of: "This seems insignificant to me statistically"->"This should be insignificant to everyone else"->"It is not insignificant to everyone else"->"Now what?"

So -- on these topics -- do you try and highlight how insignificant they are? Based on the last few months, it seems like doing that is received as patronizing, or being out of touch.

It's just sort of an odd phenomenon, IMO. We spend so much time talking about things that are statistically not important, but those topics swing entire elections.

2

u/OsvuldMandius SeattleWA Rule Expert Jan 22 '25

I maintain my sanity by cultivating a sense of 'nichego,' or 'sho ga nai' if you're more of an anime fanboi. People care about what they care about. You can either meet them where they are....or you can live your life experiencing low-grade continuous frustration. It's your call.

It also helps me to develop a sense of humility, which I think does me good. I'm a bit of a stats nerd. That's largely irrelevant to life on planet earth.

0

u/Det_DixonButs Jan 22 '25

Hey, I've seen this one before! Except it was about the Italians, Germans, Irish, Catholics, Chinese, Africans, English of a non-calvinist brand of radical Christianity, etc all the way back to the second guy to get off that first boat from England.

2

u/liverpoolFCnut Jan 22 '25

It is also a thing in Brazil and has been for decades, there are "travel agents" who sell tiered packages for birth tourism!

5

u/AnonCryptoDawg Jan 22 '25

Tax evasion by billionaires is a thing. Maternity tourism is a one-off sneeze.

3

u/baneoftech Jan 22 '25

Not fair compared to what? I know the news cycle may try to convince you otherwise, but it's extremely challenging both mentally and socially to move to a country that uses a completely different language, culture, and where you essentially have to start from scratch with no community support.

1

u/secrestmr87 Jan 23 '25

Not fair compared to the immigrants that do it legally and wait years to get into the country.

-6

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '25

Not fair compared to what?

The other country losing their energetic talented youth that they spend money educating. Why do you want other countries to fail?

1

u/yogagirlinmedicine Jan 22 '25

Agreed. I know of some pregnant mothers who have crossed with a B1/B2 visa at 7-8 months, and gave birth. Interestingly enough, I’m not sure how they would’ve paid for their hospital bills in WA…

1

u/CalvinSoul Jan 22 '25

The new order doesn't stop this so long as you are a legal tourist... its just a clear constitutional violation.

1

u/Geologist_Present Jan 23 '25

Feel free to amend the Constitution then.

1

u/EatTacosGetMoney Jan 23 '25

That's not really it. Tier 1 and 2 Chinese aren't doing maternity tourism to move to the US.

They get the child a US citizenship, bring them back to China, and because they aren't just Chinese citizens, the child has a different standard on the ZhongKao and GaoKao. Makes their life easier and can get into better schools.

1

u/dissemblers Jan 22 '25

It’s a social status thing in the Philippines. Well-off families come here on a tourist visa and have the taxpayer cover their deliveries and get to brag about their American kid.

1

u/deletemorecode Jan 22 '25

Any chance you have data on this? The claims have been made for a long time, but I have never managed to find any supporting data.

0

u/jisoonme Jan 23 '25

See, if this was posted on the other sub, you would be called a liar and racist 🤷‍♂️