Panama Immigrants Flood US for Surprising Reason

PANAMA - The crisis on our southern border has many searching for reasons why thousands of immigrants are seeking to live in the United states.

The influx of illegals has been attributed to poverty and crime in Latin America, but that isn't the only reason.

Panama has the highest per capita income of any country in Latin America. It's also the farthest from the southern U.S. border. But its citizens are heading to the United States as well. Only it isn't the kind of people you might think.

Sarah is a well-educated business owner in Panama. 

"I have two businesses...a bar and an Internet cafe," she explained.

The businesses are profitable, but when Sarah became pregnant with her first child, her friends told her she should go to the United States to have her baby.

"My friend told me that we could go to the United States to have our babies so they could have the United States citizenship," she confessed.

Her friend wasn't suggesting they enter illegally. Both of them were able to show sufficient income to get a tourist visa.

That meant they would be able to fly to California where they could then wait to give birth. Her friend had done it once before.

"She was really afraid because her belly was a little big, but they didn't ask anything and they allowed her to enter like normal, like tourist. They didn't ask anything to her," Sarah said.

As a bonus, her friend was able to have her baby at a hospital in Los Angeles and pay nothing for it. The bill was picked up by the taxpayers.

"She didn't pay anything. She only paid the stay, the rent in the house that she was staying, and the food, and that's the only thing that she paid," she said.

This isn't an isolated case. Some Southern California hospitals report that 99 percent of new mothers they serve are illegal immigrants.

"Yeah it's very common. I know, like, five or six people that go there and already have their babies there and they are planning to have more babies," Sarah said. 

When these "anchor babies" turn 21 years old, they will be eligible to bring their families from central America as well.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, as many as 8 percent of children born in the United States have at least one parent who is in the country illegally. That's more than 340,000 kids per year.

"My friends wanted their babies to be Americans because it's going to be easier for them to get a job to go to college and to enter to the country later when they grow up," Sarah said.

Sarah decided against having her baby in the United States because she was afraid she'd be lonely for the several months she'd have to stay. But she said she understands why her friends did it.