California Apartments Raided in Federal Investigation of Chinese ‘Birth Tourism’

Federal agents stormed 37 locations in Southern California early Tuesday, gathering evidence about what they say are three illegal “birth tourism” businesses for wealthy Chinese women.

According to affidavits unsealed Tuesday, the businesses arranged for pregnant women to come to the United States on tourist visas to give birth to babies. The children will be American citizens, entitled to birth certificates and passports — and, when they turn 21, able to help their parents become legal residents of the United States.

“This is still very much an ongoing investigation, coming after undercover activities that have lasted most of the last year,” said Virginia Kice, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman. “Today is just the execution of search warrants and evidence gathering. We are not anticipating any arrests right now.”

The affidavits, filed in support of search warrants, describe businesses that charge clients up to $60,000, with the size of the fee depending on housing arrangements, the number of Chinese-speaking nannies desired once the baby is born and other factors. The businesses arrange the women’s transportation, housing and prenatal care, and obtain birth certificates and passports for the babies before they leave the country.

The companies caution the women to wear loosefitting clothes, to lie to the American authorities about the intent of their trip and not to wait too far into their pregnancy before traveling. Most women arrive two to three months before their due date, many initially flying to a tourist destination like Hawaii or Las Vegas rather than the Los Angeles airport, where there is greater scrutiny. They usually stay for about a month after giving birth.

According to the affidavits, clients were told not to bring any maternity clothes and were given some coaching on how to answer immigration questions; one company, USA Happy Baby, promised a refund if a client was sent home at the airport.

While Mexicans, Koreans and families from other countries have also engaged in so-called birth tourism, in recent years it has been most often Chinese families who have been willing to pay large sums to have their children born in the United States. The births usually occur in Southern California, where, one of the affidavits said, Chinese women delivered more than 400 American babies at just one Orange County hospital.

The affidavits quote Chinese government sources as reporting that Chinese nationals had 10,000 babies in the United States in 2012, up from 4,200 in 2008.

One of the businesses said on its website, starbabycare.com, that since it began in 1999, it had served 8,000 pregnant women, 4,000 of them Chinese.

Complaints about Southern California maternity hotels for Chinese women have surfaced with some regularity in recent years. Four years ago, in San Gabriel, a city in east Los Angeles County with a large Asian population, local officials closed a house where neighbors had reported many women, some pregnant, some with infants, coming and going.

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And in 2013, Los Angeles County brought code violations against 16 maternity hotels for operating as boardinghouses in residential areas; one of those cited was Pheasant Ridge, a 600-unit apartment complex in Rowland Heights, where 11 units were raided on Tuesday.

Zoning laws have generally been the primary legal tool against maternity hotels, since it is not illegal for pregnant foreigners to visit the United States or to give birth while visiting. And while lying to get a tourist visa is illegal, it is not easy to prove.

Tuesday’s raids, the largest so far, were an attempt to crack down on the industry promoting maternity tourism, rather than the women having the babies.

“It’s a good start if the goal is to discourage fraudulent acts related to birth tourism,” said Jon Feere, a legal and policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, which favors tighter immigration laws. “It’s a possibility that this will send a message to future birth tourists that maybe the trip isn’t worthwhile. But if the government isn’t going to prosecute the actual birth tourists, or prevent the issuance of passports to their babies, this may not have much effect.”

On Tuesday, dozens of federal agents raided upscale apartment complexes — and the business owners’ homes — in Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, looking for documents, computer records and other evidence of tax and immigration fraud.

According to the affidavits, the businesses hid their income and foreign bank accounts. The federal authorities used undercover informants to find out the details of the businesses. In one case, an American-based Chinese national posing as the cousin of a potential client in China explored the different options and even asked to see the “confinement” accommodations that might be available.