Feds Raid California ‘Maternity Hotels’ – IOTW Report

Feds Raid California ‘Maternity Hotels’

USPF: Southern California apartment complexes that doubled as “maternity hotels” for Chinese women who want made-in-America babies were raided early Tuesday, capping an unprecedented federal sting operation, officials said.

NBC News was on the scene as Homeland Security agents swept into The Carlyle, a luxury property in Irvine, California, which housed pregnant women and new moms who allegedly forked over $40,000 to $80,000 to give birth in the United States.

NBCUniversal

“I am doing this for the education of the next generation,” one of the women told NBC News.

None of the women were arrested; they are being treated as material witnesses, and paramedics were on hand in case any of them went into labor during the sweep.

Instead, the investigation was aimed at ringleaders who pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars tax-free to help Chinese nationals obtain visas and then pamper them until they delivered in an American hospital at a discount, court papers show.

“It’s not necessarily illegal to come here to have the baby, but if you lie about your reasons for coming here, that’s visa fraud,” said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for Los Angeles.

All told, the feds raided 20 locations in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, targeting three competing birth tourism schemes, officials said. The suspected operators have not been charged but are being questioned.

The organizers who allegedly ran the Carlyle site, Chao Chen and Dong Li, used a website to drum up business, touting the benefits of a child with U.S. citizenship: 13 years of free education, low-cost college financial aid, less pollution, and a path for the entire family to emigrate when the child becomes an adult.

Clients were counseled on what lies to tell to obtain a tourist visa; how to fly through Hawaii, Las Vegas or Korea to avoid suspicious immigration officers at Los Angeles International Airport; and how to disguise their pregnancy in transit, according to search warrant affidavit unsealed Tuesday. read more

19 Comments on Feds Raid California ‘Maternity Hotels’

  1. This law has to be changed: not a citizen your kid does not become a citizen unless the parent has previously been in the legal immigration process.

    Follow our existing immigration laws and precedence.

    I fought for this country but I didn’t so it could give it away to muslimes, mexicans, and chinese people who don’t qualify legally!!!!!!!!

  2. Federal authorities must go back to the earliest days of tourist maternity/birth and disqualify every single person who was born here as a result of their mother coming here for that purpose. It’s not legal citizenship any more than someone marrying a citizen in order to obtain legal status. Shut down and arrest those who run these places or make other arrangements for birth tourism.

  3. But But But… I thought we were a horrible
    racist country with Bible totin’ gun lovin’
    deplorable rednecks ???? Why would anybody
    want to come here???…..

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