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Mary Louise Kelly,host: From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I’m Mary Louise Kelly

Melissa Block,host: And I’m Melissa Block

Mary Louise Kelly: The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says anyone born on U.S. soil has the right to U.S. citizenship.

The amendment was adopted in 1868 in order to guarantee citizenship rights to former slaves. Through the years, it has drawn illegalimmigrants hoping their children born here can have a better life. Recently, a different set of people have been traveling to the US to give birth here. As NPR’s Rob Gifford reports from Shanghai, they are coming legally even flying first-class.

Rob Gifford,correspondent: Like most pregnant women, 30-year-old Chen Li is taking every precaution for the health of her unborn child. Sitting in a plush western coffee shop in Shanghai, she drinks mineral water, not coffee. She doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol. She and her husband both work for a foreign IT company and they have more choices than their parents generation could even dream of. But Chen has decided her unborn child--a boy--will have more choices than most Chinese babies.

In a few weeks’ time, she will board a plane for Los Angeles where she plans to give birth in an American hospital, and that’s obtained a US passport for her son.

Ms. CHEN LEI: (Through Translator) Most Chinese women who go to the US to give birth do so for their child’s future, for the education and for the work possibilities and that’s true for me, too. We just want to give him more choices in life.

Rob Gifford: Chen who is cautious enough not to want her real name used is one of the increasing number of mainland Chinese women who are taking advantage of a loophole in the American law to travel to the United States to give birth.

A whole host of middlemen have sprung up in China to facilitate the booming trade, foremost of whom is Robert Zhou, a Taiwanese businessman, who, for roughly $15,000, can arrange the hospital in Los Angeles, the doctor, the house and car rental, and any number of other extras for wealthy Chinese parents-to-be（准父母）.

Mr. ROBERT ZHOU: (Through Translator) What I'm trying to do is to help Chinese mothers to realize their American dream, at a fair and reasonable price. We're not encouraging pregnant women to go and get a U.S. visa. We say that if you already have a U.S. visa, and you're pregnant, you can take the opportunity to give birth in the U.S. So yes, it is a gray area in U.S. law.

Rob Gifford: Anti-immigration activists in the U.S. say the 14th Amendment was never meant to be applied this way. The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department have no specific regulations regarding pregnant foreign visitors like Chen Li.

Robert Zhou insists the women obtain their U.S. visas themselves before they even approach him. He says his clients are paying for everything themselves, and not being a burden on U.S. taxpayers.

Even though there are many opportunities in China, Zhou says, there's no doubt access to a free U.S. public school education, and reduced college costs that come with being an American citizen, are worth the investment.

Mr. ZHOU: (Through Translator) For lots of Chinese people now, $15,000 is very affordable. And it's still at least four times more expensive for a foreign student to study at an American university than it is for an American student. With a U.S. passport, there are no barriers for study or for work.

Rob Gifford: Zhou has helped as many as 600 mothers give birth in the U.S. in the last five years. Some are doing so in order to skirt China's strict one-child law, which doesn't apply if a child is born to Chinese parents outside China.

Some parents, Zhou says when they've tasted America, do want to emigrate. But the majority of them like Chen Li don't want to move to America themselves at all.

Ms. LEI: (Through Translator) We work in IT, and for people like us, it's better to stay here in China. We have a great quality of life here, so there's no reason for us to move.

Rob Gifford: There is one other advantage of giving birth in the U.S., says Chen. Last Christmas, she went to a conference in Las Vegas and bought eight pairs of designer shoes, for about $200 a pair, half the price they cost in China. She is going to Vegas again, she says, to do some serious shopping before she gives birth in the new year.

Rob Gifford, NPR News, Shanghai.

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