Federal agents raided more than a dozen homes today in a crackdown on an industry that helps wealthy, pregnant Chinese women travel to the US to give birth to American babies.
The crackdown on three alleged maternity tourism rings may be the biggest yet by federal homeland security agents who say that, while women may travel to the United States while pregnant, they cannot lie about the purpose of their trip when applying for a visa.
Birth tourism has been reported from a range of countries, but authorities say the most recent cases in California have catered to wealthy Chinese amid a boom in tourism from mainland China. It is unclear how many women travel to the United States for maternity tourism.
Shortly after sunrise today, federal agents swarmed an upscale apartment complex in the Orange County city of Irvine where authorities say a birth tourism business charged pregnant women USD 50,000 for lodging, food and transportation.
Investigators said women were coached to lie about their travel plans when applying for tourist visas and were promised they would receive Social Security numbers and US passports for their babies before returning to China.
