Never understood birthright citizenship

Under birthright citizenship, any child born in the U.S. is automatically an American citizen at birth — even if the child’s parent or parents are here illegally.  

A recent federal indictment of 19 individuals on immigration fraud charges shows that a whole industry has grown up to bring pregnant women from other countries to the U.S. so their children can be born as American citizens. The 19 indicted people were charged with operating or participating in “birth tourism” agencies.

According the U.S. Justice Department — which took action for the first time to break up three such agencies — the three operations in Southern California made millions of dollars bringing thousands of Chinese women to the U.S. for the sole purpose of securing birthright citizenship for their children.