Federal Agents Carry Out Search For Evidence Of Illegal Support For 'Birth Tourism'

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Federal agents searched more than three dozen locations in Southern California yesterday. It's part of a crackdown on businesses the authorities say are running birth tourism schemes. Birth tourism, also known as maternity tourism, is where a foreigner travels to the United States to give birth so their child automatically gains U.S. citizenship. This is not illegal in and of itself, but federal authorities are investigating a few businesses they say are breaking the law by coaching and helping wealthy Chinese women through the process. NPR's Nathan Rott has more.

NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: Spanning dozens of locations in three Southern California counties, the searches started just after sunrise and went through the day. Agents gathered diaper boxes and computers, paperwork and phone numbers. And as investigators encountered pregnant women, they weren't arrested but interviewed.

CLAUDE ARNOLD: They're being treated as material witnesses to the overall conspiracy that we're investigating.

ROTT: That's Claude Arnold, the lead investigator for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He says it's not illegal for them to be here for the purpose of giving birth.

ARNOLD: But what is illegal is to lie about your reasons for traveling to the U.S. when you're applying for your visa and also when you're applying for admission in the United States.

ROTT: The three companies at the heart of their investigation, Arnold says, are helping women do just that.

ARNOLD: Women were coached to wear loose clothing to conceal if they were showing their pregnancy. They were told to, you know, make up a story as to why they're really traveling.

ROTT: And they paid for the service. In affidavits filed for the search warrants, federal authorities say that the businesses charge women up to $60,000 for coaching, facilitating travel to the U.S., lodging, hospital expenses, even nanny support.

ARNOLD: It's a conspiracy, essentially - is what we're investigating - a conspiracy to commit visa fraud.

ROTT: For a wealthy clientele. That's why federal agents focus their searches on high-end hotels and luxury apartments like the Pheasant Ridge Apartments about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in an area called Rowland Heights. I went there after the searches.

Can I bug you for a second, ma'am?

And in about an hour, I saw seven pregnant women come and go.

Can I ask you a question?

And only one was interested in talking.

ANN: So you want interview for the maternity (laughter)?

ROTT: Yeah, but I want to...

The woman asked to be called Ann. She doesn't want to use her real name because she's scared that she could get into trouble. And she's seven months pregnant.

ROTT: Boy or girl?

ANN: Girl.

ROTT: It's a girl?

ANN: Probably (laughter).

ROTT: Ann says that she came here with her husband and parents from Beijing, without help. And she says she didn't lie to get her tourist visa.

ANN: I just honest told them I will have a child here if possible - if they allowed us. So...

ROTT: And they said OK?

ANN: Yeah.

ROTT: One of the federal affidavits cited a figure of 40,000 for the number of children born in the U.S. each year as a product of birth tourism. Muzaffar Chisti of the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute says that's hugely speculative. Research is mixed.

MUZAFFAR CHISTI: And the numbers, even the most exaggerated ones, are very small.

ROTT: He says most numbers put it at less than 10,000. And beyond that...

CHISTI: It's really very hard to gauge the motivation of people who deliver their babies here.

ROTT: Ann, for example, says she wants to have her baby in the U.S. because the hospitals are better than they are in China. They're less crowded, less expensive.

ANN: And another reason is I know it is not illegal. It's legal.

ROTT: And her baby will go home with a U.S. passport. Nathan Rott, NPR News, Rowland Heights, Calif. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.