Thread: Federal agents raid 20 suspected 'maternity hotels' in California

The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports lower levels of immigration, estimates there are roughly 40,000 birth tourists each year from China, Nigeria, Turkey and other countries.

“I think what irks Americans about this situation is that birth tourists are effectively taking control over U.S. immigration and citizenship policy by turning a grant of temporary admission into a permanent stay,” said Jon Feere, legal policy analyst for the center.

Well, what actually irks Americans about this situation is that the US government is misapplying the 14th Amendment to misappropriate US citizenship, not so much of the 40,000 involved in birth tourism, but of the millions who receive this status through admission into the country, whether it's legal or illegal., whether proper or improper, whether straight up illegal entry or finessed legal entry through a visa.

And now we add marriage fraud...

1. Feds crack down on Chinese 'birth tourism' | Fox News
   
   www.foxnews.com/.../feds-crack-down-on-chinese-bir...
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   Feds crack down on Chinese 'birth tourism' ... Birth tourism is big business. ... officials at LAX were already on alert to potential "birth tourism" fraud. ... hope to obtain evidence of visa fraud, marriage fraud and tax evasion...

Feds crack down on Chinese 'birth tourism'

By William La Jeunesse, Laura Prabucki
Published March 03, 2015 FoxNews.com



NOW PLAYINGDHS cracking down on birth tourism

Airfare from the U.S. to China and a months-long stay in an Orange County, Calif., apartment: $80,000. A baby born a U.S. citizen: priceless.

In the largest operation of its kind, early Tuesday morning federal officials in Southern California served warrants at "Chinese birthing houses" or "maternity hotels," where wealthy Chinese nationals paid up to $80,000 for the sole purpose of giving birth in the U.S. to obtain citizenship for their children, earning in-state tuition to U.S. universities for them and permanent U.S. residency for the parents.

"It is essentially citizenship for sale," said Center for Immigration Studies analyst Jessica Vaughan. "Something U.S. citizens hold very dear and cherish is essentially being purchased by people for their own economic self-interests or potentially more nefarious purposes."

"We were coached through the entire process. What to wear, what to say, how to stay under the radar."

- Federal source

Birth tourism is big business. An estimated 40,000 babies are born to couples posing as tourists each year. The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that automatically grants citizenship to any child born here, regardless of the parents’ nationality. While it is not against the law, lying to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. under false pretense is illegal. Companies offering to help foreign nationals give birth in the U.S. operate openly on the Internet, promising a U.S. passport, birth certificate and Social Security number for their newborn. Prices range from $8,000 to $80,000, depending on the services. Wealthy couples from China, the Middle East, Africa and South Korea predominate the trade.

According to an affidavit filed Tuesday in federal court, Department of Homeland Security investigators posed as Chinese nationals wanting a relative in Beijing to have a child in the U.S. Agents met with Chao Chen and Jie Zhu, a husband and wife in Orange County, Calif., who gave the undercover agent a tour of the Caryle Apartments near John Wayne Airport. According to the document, 17 to 20 apartments are all rented in Chen's name. Each unit contains one or two pregnant Chinese nationals who paid Chen and Zhu from "$40,000 to $80,000" for a package deal that includes transportation to and from the airport, visits to the grocery store, restaurants, entertainment and prenatal visits to a physician.

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Online advertisements in China brazenly offer the chance to have a baby with U.S. citizenship. (DHS)


It also includes fraud. The "niece" living in China provided Chen's associates a resume that showed no college education, a low income and few family ties. Chen's company, 'You Win USA Vacation Resort' changed the information to appear more acceptable to the U.S. Consulate, which granted her application for a business visa. She also was told not to reveal her pregnancy and how to conceal it when she arrived at customs in the U.S. The agent also was routed through Honolulu "for a higher success rate," since officials at LAX were already on alert to potential "birth tourism" fraud.
"We were coached through the entire process," a federal source told Fox News. "What to wear, what to say, how to stay under the radar."
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Couples pay up to $80,000 to come to the U.S. to give birth. (DHS)

According to the affidavit, Li advised the undercover agent "not to go to get her visa too late, if her stomach is too big she won't be able to get the visa." In addition, LI said "they can coach her on how to get through customs."

In February, agents visited the 'You Win USA Travel' website. It contains photos of a classroom-style presentation featuring a slideshow, with images whose titles included: "American Baby" and

"What you need to know to get an ID."

During the search warrant, agents hope to obtain evidence of visa fraud, marriage fraud and tax evasion. Documents show Chen and Zhu claimed to have divorced in 2012, then entered into sham marriages in Las Vegas a few months later with U.S. citizens, allowing both to obtain lawful U.S. residency. Both then paid off their purported U.S. citizen spouses, in one case $10,000 in a series of 16 bank deposits.

Chen and his business associate, Dong Li, "earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in income from their visa fraud scheme," according to court documents, yet Li filed no tax return and Chen filed a false return. Neither cited their foreign bank accounts as required by law. Chen drives a $200,000 Bentley, his wife a luxury BMW.

Investigators focused on three companies specializing in birth tourism fraud. In Orange County, the pregnant Chinese nationals tell hospital admission officials they're indigent, sticking U.S. taxpayers with the cost of their babies, "which often exceed $25,000," according to court records.

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When the children grow up, they even qualify for in-state tuition, if they are considered U.S. citizens. (DHS)


"We're creating a group of sort of pseudo citizens who live overseas, but can take advantage of the fact that they are U.S. citizens on paper," says Vaughan. "There is no question this is a threat to our national interest at worst. At best, it is something very distasteful because it cheapens U.S. citizenship."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/03/03...-tourism-scam/

‘MATERNITY TOURISM’ CUSTOMERS INCLUDED CHINESE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES

Associated Press

by MICHELLE MOONS 4 Mar 2015 San Diego, CA

Several of the customers identified in a “maternity tourism” scheme in California are employees of the Chinese government, including the provinces of Ningxia and Henan, according to court documents issued in the course of obtaining search warrants.

One search warrant documents reads, “Chinese government customers: Several of the customers of Lui and Dong’s immigration fraud scheme have been identified as being employed by the Chinese government, including in the provinces of Ningxia and Hanan, China.”

Breitbart previously reported on the bust of numerous southern California “maternity tourism” locations that were helping foreign national women give birth in the United States, making the children U.S. citizens.

Maternity Tourism Warrant.pdf

Numbers released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reveal that over 30 locations were served with search warrants in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernadino counties. The raid is the result of ongoing investigations into maternity tourism schemes.

Court documents identify “Chinese birthing houses” that were operated by the corporation USA Happy Baby Inc. The corporation belongs to Michael Wei Yeuh Liu and Jing Dong, according to the same documents.

http://www.breitbart.com/california/...ent-employees/

Pregnant Russians Are Going to Florida to Give Birth in Warm Weather

October 16, 2014
by Erin Meisenzahl-Peace


Yulia Voronovich cradling her daughter Daria. She said she decided not to use a birth-tourism agency because she believes they charge too much. Photo by the author

At least a handful of pregnant Russian women board every flight from Moscow to Miami, according to Miami real estate agent Alexander Kronfeld. Kronfeld knows this because his realty company helps the expecting Eastern Europeans find three-to-five month leases in South Florida so they can give birth in warm weather.

Expecting mothers from Russia and other former Soviet-bloc countries are crowding the shores of North Miami and Sunny Isles Beach—also known as the "Russian Riviera"—and hiring bilingual companies, like Status-Med and BabyMiami, to find them short-term leases and high-quality medical care before they jet back to Putin's paradise.

http://www.vice.com/read/miami-matry...0000463-v21n10

Texas Birth tourism: Foreigners having babies in US so kids can get US passports

KHOU Staff, KHOU.com

(Photo: KHOU)

HOUSTON -- It s the surest way to become a U.S. citizen -- make sure you re born here.

If you re born here, your citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution, even if your mother is not a U.S. citizen or is in the country illegally.

It doesn t speak about the parentage as far as what nationality or status, said Gordon Quan, with FosterQuan, an immigration law firm in Houston.

That s why 11 News began looking into something called birth tourism: Foreigners coming to the U.S. to give birth so their babies become U.S. citizens, eligible for that coveted U.S. passport.

For years, Houston s Texas Medical Center has promoted itself internationally and has become a destination for people seeking the best care. And that includes women who want to have children.

We have them come from South America, Latin America, Australia, Europe, Asia, said Dr. Timothy Hickman, a fertility doctor at the Houston IVF Fertility Clinic, located at Memorial Hermann s new complex on the Katy Freeway.

But Dr. Hickman said he thinks the vast majority of his patients are attracted here for the care, not citizenship.

If that was the case, they didn t tell me about it. Didn t seem like it, they just wanted high-quality obstetric care, he said.

That said, 11 News found it does happen in Houston.

Gordon Quan, the immigration attorney, said his firm has represented pregnant women from countries, including Pakistan and China, who wanted to give birth in Houston.

We ve had to work with clients to get extensions of stay so they could be legally here to have their children, said Quan.

Though the Office of Homeland Security does not have policies specifically about pregnant women, Quan said officials were not easily persuaded to allow the women to extend their visitors visas.

I don t think they re encouraging it, at all, said Quan.

Quan said his clients were here legally on visitors visas and were wealthy. That s a big difference compared to what you may have already heard about -- impoverished, illegal immigrants coming here to give birth, supposedly so their children will qualify for government assistance.

We re the only nation on earth that allows an illegal alien to give birth to an automatic citizen, said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a Republican from Houston.

Culberson has co-sponsored a bill that would deny citizenship to babies born here to foreigners.

The bill doesn t make any exceptions for birth tourism. In an interview from Washington D.C., Culberson was asked if birth tourism should be discouraged.

Well, the person that s here legally has obviously followed the rules and done the right thing. And the one right thing we want to encourage people to use the visa system, he said.

If the right thing includes getting a U.S. passport for their newborn, attorney Quan said you can hardly blame parents for wanting to give their child every advantage.

A passport is sometimes key to your future as to where you can go, Quan said. It gives them an edge in a globally competitive world.

And for now, it s an advantage guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

http://www.khou.com/story/news/2014/07/11/11348460/

Hoag and Fountain Valley hospitals are favorites for birth tourism, Homeland Security officials say

Posted 1 hour & 8 minutes ago
A Chinese couple arrived in Irvine, opened up a bank account, went on a spending spree, had a baby and flew back home.But they allegedly left the hospital without paying...

Hoag and Fountain Valley hospitals are favorites for birth tourism, Homeland Security officials say

March 4, 2015
Updated March 5, 2015 10:18 a.m.

Federal agents return to a command post after executing search warrants and interviews of pregnant Chinese nationals in an upscale Irvine apartment complex on Tuesday.KEN STEINHARDT, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

BY ROXANA KOPETMAN and SCOTT SCHWEBKE / STAFF WRITERS

Orange County premises searched

• 18880 Douglas, Irvine, a dozen apartments
• 32 Windsong, Irvine
• 78 Harrison, Irvine
• 28601 Los Alisos Blvd., Mission Viejo, one apartment

Related stories
Birth tourism: An Irvine company makes $2 million in 2013 enticing foreign women to give birth to hundreds of babies in O.C., feds say
Federal agents raid homes, some in Irvine, in crackdown on pregnant Chinese women traveling to U.S. to give birth


A Chinese couple arrived in Irvine, opened up a bank account, went on a spending spree, had a baby and flew back home.

But they allegedly left the hospital without paying their full bill.

Federal investigators looking at birth tourism – a practice that gained national attention this week following raids on more than 20 residences in Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties – say two local hospitals have been favorites for operators working in Orange County: Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center and Hoag Hospital.

According to affidavits unsealed this week, the two hospitals were used by customers of You Win USA Vacation Resort, a company that brings women from China to Orange County with the specific intent of having babies with American citizenship. While that is not in itself illegal, obtaining visas under false pretenses, and fraudulently claiming to be indigent when seeking health care, is illegal.

You Win USA Vacation Resort is one of three companies under investigation. Federal investigators are looking for evidence of fraud, misuse of visas, tax evasion and other crimes. No arrests have been made.

Investigators say about 400 of the Orange County children were born in the Fountain Valley hospital and "many children" were born at Hoag, according to the affidavit.

They also detailed the financial story of one Chinese family at the Fountain Valley hospital:

Hongbao Xu and Xiaojing Cao arrived at LAX from China on Feb. 10, 2014. In March, they opened a bank account with $34,000. A few days later, there was a wire transfer of more than $203,000. Between March and May, there were several charges to that account from pricey outlets: the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel, the Bose Store, Rolex in Costa Mesa and Louis Vuitton in Beverly Hills.

The couple had a baby on April 16. The hospital charged them $28,845.29 for his birth.

The father paid $4,080.

On May 29, they transferred out $220,000 to China. A day later, the couple went back to China with their newborn infant.

"It appears that H. Xu and Cao had hundreds of thousands of dollars available to pay the full hospital charges," wrote Jeffrey Eastman, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, in the affidavit.

On Wednesday, a Fountain Valley Regional Hospital spokeswoman declined to talk about the issue in detail, saying only that the hospital has cooperated with law enforcement "and will continue to do so."

At Hoag, "many children" who were connected to an Irvine couple under investigation by federal authorities were born at the hospital since 2013, according to the affidavit. Shannon Dwyer, an attorney for St. Joseph Hoag Health, said Wednesday that the hospital is cooperating with authorities and provides medical care "to all who walk through our doors, regardless of their background or ability to pay."

That open-door policy can be problematic if a birth tourist operator floods a hospital with patients.

“When an influx of deliveries occurs, it causes undue stress on the resources of the hospital,” said Suzanne Richards, interim chief executive of Integrated Health Care, which oversees Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

The practice known as birth tourism, or maternity hotels, is not new.

The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group that promotes slow immigration, estimates that some 40,000 babies are born in the U.S. each year from mothers who crossed the border with the specific intent of giving their infant American citizenship.

The companies that operate the birthing operations offer the women housing, medical care and shopping opportunities, according to the affidavits by the Department of Homeland Investigations.

The more expensive packages include deluxe accommodations, trips to Disneyland and other venues. They also instruct the women on what to wear and say upon arrival to avoid detection by immigration officials.

One company, Star Baby Care, charged an extra $10,000 for its Irvine location, according to an affidavit filed by special agent Jared Harada. That company says it has provided services to 8,000 women since 1999, including 4,000 from China. Their packages range from $10,000 to $25,000, Harada wrote.

The operators’ websites tout the benefits of U.S. citizenship. One company includes the image of a woman arriving pregnant and leaving with a baby wrapped in a U.S. flag.

But Jon Feere, legal policy analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies, said Wednesday that while the three-county investigation in Southern California involved wealthy Chinese, many of the so-called birth tourists come from poorer backgrounds and may go under the radar.

“It’s very organized in China. But not every single person is wealthy and going through these providers,” Feere said.

“Some come with just a plane ticket.”

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/h...rth-china.html

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@ocregister.com and 714-796-7767 or sschwebke@ocregister.com

Why does the US Department of State issue passports to children of foreign tourists?

The people who wrote the Reconstruction Amendments - the 13th, 14th, and 15th - were clear about the 14th Amendment not applying to foreigners. During the congressional debates, one of the people who worked on those amendments specifically said that the 14th did not apply to children of diplomats or people who were in the country temporarily.

The language of the amendment is clear: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens... Foreigners may not like their government, but they remain subject to its jurisdiction.

We can of course apply our laws to foreigners. If we catch people stealing, for example, we can put them in jail and then deport them. But putting foreigners in jail does not transform them into citizens, it just makes them criminal aliens whom we will deport. The same principle applies to everybody, including those practicing "birth tourism." They're not citizens; they're criminal aliens.
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