Some pregnant Chinese nationals bound for "birthing houses" in Los Angeles to deliver their babies as U.S. citizens were instructed to enter America through Honolulu Airport, where custom inspectors were considered to be more lax, according to federal affidavits unsealed Tuesday.
"Birthing houses will generally advise foreign national clients to fly to tourism points of entry such as Hawaii or Las Vegas and to avoid traveling directly to Los Angeles International Airport," Homeland Security agents wrote in affidavits in support of raids executed Tuesday on several Southern California locations that charged tens of thousands of dollars to wealthy Chinese women to ensure their babies were born American citizens.
The phenomenon of birthing houses catering to wealthy Chinese has been going on for at least a decade, Homeland Security agents wrote.
One of the Southern California businesses advertised that it had helped 8,000 expectant mothers give birth — and half came from China.
Some of the women were told to tell immigration officials in Honolulu that they were visiting the United States as tourists for only a few weeks — not for the months — to avoid detection and eventually give birth in Southern California.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials Tuesday did not immediately respond to a request for comment on allegations contained in the affidavits about lax scrutiny in Honolulu. There was no indication that women connected to the birthing houses ever remained in Hawaii to give birth, or mention of any other connection to the birthing houses.
Citizenship information isn’t required for either parent for issuance of a Hawaii birth certificate, according to the state Health Department. Because of that, the Health Department doesn’t track how many Chinese women — if any — are traveling to Hawaii to give birth in the islands.
"This type of business is generally referred to in the Chinese community as a ‘confinement center’ and in the American media as ‘birthing houses’ or ‘maternity motels,’" according to one affidavit. "For the past several years, thousands of pregnant women from China have been traveling to the United States using temporary visitor visas for the sole purpose of giving birth in the United States so that their children will enjoy the benefits of natural-born American citizens."
Immigration officials at Los Angeles International Airport have "heightened security," according to one affidavit, "based on the volume of fraudulent visas and false statements … related to birth tourism."
Once arriving in Honolulu en route to Los Angeles, the women were instructed to avoid wearing maternity clothes and to not bring baby-related items.
Instead, they were told to wear loose-fitting clothing to avoid questions by immigration officials about whether they were pregnant, according to the affidavits, which accuse the operators of committing immigration fraud, failure to report income to the Internal Revenue Service and failure to report foreign bank accounts.
In one case, according to the affidavits, one pregnant woman stated on her visa application that she intended to travel to Hawaii with her family for two weeks in August 2013 and planned to stay at the Sheraton Waikiki.
Homeland Security records showed that the woman instead entered the U.S. on July 7, 2013, then flew out of Los Angeles International Airport five months later on Nov. 15, 2013, along with a child born in the interim, according to one affidavit.
In another case, according to the same affidavit, a woman stated on her visa application that she intended to visit Hawaii with her husband for 15 days in February 2014 and planned to stay at the Waikiki Gateway Hotel. Homeland Security records showed that the woman entered the United States on Feb. 6, 2014, and flew out of Los Angeles four months later in May, along with a baby born during the stay, according to the affidavit.
