Federal agents raided twenty “birth hotels” on Tuesday night in the Los Angeles area.
The plush complexes double as “maternity hotels” for pregnant Chinese women who come to the US to give birth to their anchor babies.
Chinese women pay from $40,000 to $80,000 to come to the US to deliver their anchor babies.
It’s an industry.
Breaking: Feds raid 20 “birth hotels” in Los Angeles! https://t.co/qCwrY39aoR
— LIZ THE🌪IS HERE‼️🍕 (@LizCrokin) January 10, 2018
Chinese listing sites show several hundred maternity hotels in Southern California. It’s not clear how many of the listings are active.
NBC reported:
Southern California apartment complexes that doubled as “maternity hotels” for Chinese women who want made-in-America babies were raided early Tuesday, capping an unprecedented federal sting operation, officials said.
NBC News was on the scene as Homeland Security agents swept into The Carlyle, a luxury property in Irvine, California, which housed pregnant women and new moms who allegedly forked over $40,000 to $80,000 to give birth in the United States.
“I am doing this for the education of the next generation,” one of the women told NBC News.
None of the women were arrested; they are being treated as material witnesses, and paramedics were on hand in case any of them went into labor during the sweep…
…All told, the feds raided 20 locations in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, targeting three competing birth tourism schemes, officials said. The suspected operators have not been charged but are being questioned.
Image from a website that federal authorities say was used to recruit Chinese women to come to the U.S. to have their babies. youyunmeiguo
