Feds crack down on birth tourism, but it's not illegal

Traveling to the United States to have a baby just so the child can get a U.S. passport isn’t illegal. But the federal government is cracking down on the practice, which births thousands of new citizens every year.

On March 3, federal agents searched three-dozen California homes run as birth hotels by operators who help pregnant Chinese women travel to America to give birth.

“They make arrangements for lodgings here, their medical care, etc., so that [their clients] can have children born here as United States citizens,” Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s homeland security investigations in Los Angeles, told NPR.

Under the 14th Amendment, any child born on American soil automatically receives U.S. citizenship. The mothers believe a child with U.S. citizenship will offer them some security should the economy in their home country deteriorate. The child can pursue a degree at an American college, and the parents can apply for a green card once the child turns 21.

And while Chinese women probably aren’t the only ones to use that loophole, recent cases in California involving wealthy Chinese visitors are raising questions about the practice. So-called birth tourism isn’t technically illegal, federal agents say, but lying about the reason for a visit to America is. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection website warns officers will consider a woman’s due date, travel plans, and health insurance when evaluating her eligibility to enter the country.

Federal agents raided one Irvine, Calif., apartment complex housing You Win USA Vacation Resort. Investigators said the women were coached to lie on their tourist visas and wear loose clothing. The operators promised Social Security numbers and U.S. passports for their babies. One undercover agent was told to enter the U.S. through Hawaii, where the customs officers are supposedly more lenient than officers in Los Angeles.

The operators charged pregnant women about $50,000 for room, board, and transportation. Court papers said the business earned hundreds of thousands of dollars and facilitated about 400 births in just one Orange County hospital.

“It is fertile ground for this kind of scheme,” Arnold said. “These people were told to lie, how to lie, so that their motives for coming to the U.S. wouldn’t be questioned.”

Agents began investigating the Irvine hotel last year after receiving an anonymous tip. They tracked the movements, including suspicious bank charges, of one couple who arrived in February 2014, had a baby two months later, and went home in May.

Because the practice isn’t illegal, the agents didn’t make arrests or file charges after the raid. Investigators simply hoped to collect evidence for suspected crimes, like tax and credit fraud.

This isn’t the first crackdown on birth hotels. In 2013, Los Angeles County cited more than 12 building code violations at birth hotels. One in Chino Hills, an L.A. suburb, housed as many as 30 pregnant Chinese women, WORLDreported. A local court shut down the operation due to code violations, including exposed wires, missing smoke alarms, improper ventilation, and carpet stretched over a 3-foot-wide hole in the floor.

In 2013, the National Center for Health Statistics reported more than 7,000 babies were born in the United States to non-resident women per year, though the statistics didn’t reveal how many women came on purpose to give birth. By comparison, nearly 350,000 children were born to illegal immigrants in 2009, according to the Pew Hispanic Research Center.

And while the federal government cracks down on criminal action associated with birth hotels, some say abusing the 14th Amendment is the core problem.

“The practice is a misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment,” John Fonte, Hudson Institute senior fellow and director of the Center for American Common Culture, said in 2013. “U.S. citizens should be very concerned.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.