US homes raided in crackdown on pregnant Chinese ‘birth tourism’ rings
Homes raided as agents target services accused of helpingforeign women deliver more than 400 babies in US for automatic citizenship
Federal agents have searched more than a dozen homes in a crackdown on so-called "maternity tourism" operators who arrange for pregnant Chinese women to give birth in the US, where their babies automatically become American citizens.
Agents targeted three alleged maternity tourism rings operating out of apartment complexes and other sites in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties on Tuesday.
The businesses, catering largely to wealthy women paying up to US$80,000, were believed to have helped Chinese tourists deliver more than 400 American babies, court papers said.
There is nothing in US law making it illegal for pregnant women to enter the United States - and no one was arrested in the raids.
But operators of the maternity hotels were suspected of obtaining non-immigrant US visitor visas under false pretenses, as well as engaging in tax fraud, money laundering and other offences, said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of the Homeland Security Investigations office in Los Angeles.
Businesses engaged in maternity tourism, also known as "birth tourism", were believed to have been operating for years, relying on websites, newspaper advertising and social media to promote their services, immigration officials said.
The shady industry even inspired the plot for hit romantic comedy , about a woman who went to America to have her child in an illegal maternity centre after falling pregnant to a married tycoon.
Federal agents said women were coached to lie about their travel plans when applying for tourist visas, and were promised Social Security identification numbers and US passports for their babies before they returned to China.
The more expensive packages included visits to Disneyland, shopping malls - even an outing to a firing range."These people were told to lie, how to lie, so that their motives for coming to the US wouldn't be questioned," Arnold said.
Investigators said one undercover officer posing as a pregnant traveller was told not to apply for her visa too late as she would be denied if she was noticeably pregnant.
A pregnant woman who was questioned at the airport said she was told to say she was simply a tourist, court papers said.
Investigators also tracked a couple who arrived in February 2014, had their baby in April and returned home in May.
While the couple's bank account recorded charges at luxury stores including Louis Vuitton and Rolex, they paid US$4,080 - less than 15 per cent of the billed amount - to the hospital for medical services after stating the mother was not employed, the affidavit said.
