As President Donald Trump is battling to end birthright citizenship, Chinese nationals are reportedly using the largely unregulated surrogacy industry in the United States — specifically California— to rent the wombs of American women to have babies and take them back to China, News Nation reported.
It’s a practice that it dubbed “concerning,” not “not illegal,” unlike another underground industry in the state, where Chinese nationals work with “baby brokers” to bring pregnant Chinese women into the country so their babies are born U.S. citizens, according to the report.
When wealthy Chinese couples “rent a womb,” and pay an American woman to be the surrogate, the resulting child is automatically a U.S. citizen, even if the family immediately returns to China.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Joseph McNally told the outlet the practice is gravely concerning, and pointed to a case in Irvine where a baby born to a Chinese national and ended up joining to Chinese military but still had a U.S. passport.
“That provides a real national security asset to China. And a real problem to the United States,” McNally said.