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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Birth tourism case hits new stage, with criminal complaints filed against Chinese

    Birth tourism case hits new stage, with criminal complaints filed against Chinese citizens

    May 2, 2015
    Updated 7:23 a.m.

    BY ROXANA KOPETMAN / STAFF WRITER

    In March, federal agents enter an apartment complex in Irvine suspected of catering to maternity tourism travelers., JAE C. HONG, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

    Arrest warrants issued this week to 11 Chinese mothers and their partners signal a new stage in a federal crackdown on the birth tourism industry in Southern California.

    Six women and four men flew back to China last month, ignoring federal court orders to serve as material witnesses in an investigation of three companies that advertise and provide vacation-style trips in Southern California for Chinese women hoping to have babies born as U.S. citizens.

    The Chinese nationals were charged Thursday with obstruction of justice, contempt of court and making false statements on their visa applications, according to the criminal complaints. All remain out of the country and are considered fugitives, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

    An 11th Chinese national charged Thursday, a woman who had given birth in Fountain Valley, was not a material witness when she left the country with her husband and newborn baby. She was charged with visa fraud.

    Until this week, federal officials had issued only one criminal complaint – also to a material witness trying to flee – in their investigation of the birth tourism industry. The three companies targeted in a March 3 sweep by federal agents, in Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, have not been charged with any crimes.

    The U.S. Attorney’s office previously declared a group of 29 pregnant women and family members to be material witnesses, meaning they weren’t charged with crimes. Most of the women have given birth in the interim, and their children are all U.S. citizens.

    Their status changed when the new mothers, fathers and babies – and one grandmother – left the country.

    “The individuals who fled (in April) are an example of the overall scheme,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles E. Pell said Friday.

    Pell said the accused lied on visa applications and during interviews at consulate offices and, again, with custom agents upon arrival in the United States.

    “And then they thumb their noses at the court by fleeing,” Pell added.

    “So there is lying at every stage, and complete disregard for United States laws.”

    Irvine attorney Ken Z. Liang, who represents two of the accused and others who remain material witnesses, questioned why the U.S. government is spending time and resources on a practice that previously hadn’t been targeted.

    If convicted, the men and women face up to 25 years in federal prison for making a false statement on a visa application and five years for obstruction of justice.

    The criminal complaints issued this week offer some detail about how the Chinese families got into the country, and how much investigators believe some of the accused stiffed local hospitals.

    LongJing Yi and her husband, Jun Xiao, arrived at the Honolulu International Airport in Hawaii on Dec. 11 before eventually staying in Irvine.

    Yi was told prior to her arrival by one of the companies under investigation to wear “sportier, loose clothing” and not volunteer to customs agents that she was pregnant, according to the complaint.

    But Yi later told federal investigators that she came to the U.S. “to have a baby” and because “it’s nice in the United States,” according to the complaint.

    On March 17, Yi gave birth to a boy at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.

    The hospital bills – including treatment for Xiao, who suffered bleeding ulcers while in the United States – added up to nearly $71,000. The couple paid $4,600 for the maternity services and $3,467 for Xiao’s medical care, according to the complaint.

    On April 4, the couple took their baby and boarded an Air China flight back home. Before they left, they submitted an application for their son’s American passport. They requested expedited processing, according to the complaint.

    The couple’s attorney, Liang, presented a different picture.

    The couple originally intended to stay a short time, but were granted a six-month stay in the United States when they landed in Hawaii, Liang said.

    Xiao decided to go back home on April 4 – breaking his court order to stay as a material witness – because of his medical condition, Liang said.

    Liang said Xiao plans to pay the medical bill remaining for his care. But he added that his clients don’t owe any more on the maternity bill because the hospital offered them a discounted rate if they paid in cash, which they did. A hospital spokeswoman declined to comment Friday.

    Federal prosecutors, Liang said, are “putting on a show.”

    “They’re trying to send a message to the remaining mothers: ‘Don’t go.’”

    “Eventually, all charges will be dismissed,” Liang added.

    The charges against the Chinese nationals could be resolved, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. But until they are cleared, the Chinese parents face arrest in the United States, although their children are free to return as U.S. citizens.

    And their credibility as material witnesses is now shot, Mrozek said.

    “In terms of relying on their testimony, that’s a problem. These people are carrying baggage so to speak.”

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

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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    NO AMNESTY

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    Sorry to make light during a serious situation. However, Assistant federal attorney Pell amused me, seemingly angry that he is being lied to by the accused, (I'm sure he is.) I'D like to know if he gets as angry when the Attorney General or the President lies? If not, just another hypocrite. How do we restore honesty in our nation?

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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    So what's the big deal about this when hundreds of thousands of anchor babies are born every year to illegal aliens from other countries who all skip out on all of their hospital bills? I don't get the zealous attention and expense being paid to prosecute these "Chinese" women by the federal government when there's been millions of these anchor babies born to illegal aliens for decades from Caucasian and Caucasian Latino countries as well as from African origins.

    It truly strikes me as a discriminatory attack on the Chinese based on their race and national origin. The 14th Amendment demands that no one be discriminated against on that basis by any government in the United States which means if you prosecute one race group for violating US immigration law, then you must prosecute all race groups with the same vengeance, standards, policies, treatment, prosecutions and punishment.

    And numbers-wise, this is truly an example of swallowing an elephant and choking on a gnat.

    Shame!
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    Senior Member Kiara's Avatar
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    I was thinking the same thing Judy!

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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Senior Member vistalad's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    I don't get the zealous attention and expense being paid to prosecute these "Chinese" women by the federal government when there's been millions of these anchor babies born to illegal aliens for decades from Caucasian and Caucasian Latino countries as well as from African origins.
    I *hope* that this an example of trying to catch something before it gets out of hand. There's a very large potential pool of birth tourists in China.
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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by vistalad View Post
    I *hope* that this an example of trying to catch something before it gets out of hand. There's a very large potential pool of birth tourists in China.
    **********************************
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    American jobs for American workers

    Fair trade, not free trade
    It's not. It's race-driven against the Chinese. If our government was upset about aliens being born in the US for citizenship, there wouldn't be citizenship for children of aliens to begin with, since it's certainly not required, the 14th Amendment doesn't do it, there's no act of Congress that does it, it's purely a bureaucratic snafu initiated by some ignorant clerk somewhere along the way in USCIS and its predecessor agencies, uneducated incompetents who thought well if you've got a birth certificate then you're a citizen, when nothing could be further from the truth under the 14th Amendment and US law.
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