laura ling/reporter: this video tour of aneat, well-ordered home is being marketed to a specific sort of client, someone whoneeds a place to live short-term because the renter will be nearly "full-term"— a "birthtourist." in the case of this video being given in mandarin,a chinese "birth tourist" is the target audience, someone who'll come here on a tourist visafor the express purpose of giving birth on american soil. in southern california, birthtourism "hotels" have become an underground cottage industry, mostly in the san gabrielvalley in predominantly asian communities. although women also come from other countries,china still has a one-child-only policy, which motivates parents to "plan b," a visit tothe u.s. in the final months of pregnancy.
the birth tourism hotels make it easy andappealing, offering all-inclusive packages, starting at three to four thousand dollarsa month. this site promotes many of the usual places people like to see in southern california,but the newborn will return to china with something extra — a u.s. passport. john kang/immigration lawyer: over the pastfew years, it has exploded. sometimes i get 10 - 15 calls a week, and they call me toinquire about how to get babies here in the u.s., how to get passports, how to get themto travel back to china, and things like that. ling: tell me about this website right here. ling: lawyer john kang specializes in immigrationissues. he has nothing to do with the birth
tourism hotels, but he offered to navigateand translate some of the chinese websites for me. kang: if you look at this article on top ofit, there is a picture. a picture shows some baby cribs in the room. how many do we havehere? six or seven baby cribs in one room, and there is one lady standing behind there.it looks like she's the designated person to take care of these babies. kang: that’s the house. this picture. ling: three-car garage, two or three levels.it's a big house. kang: it is a big house. this website is chinesein l.a. if i click the last page, we'll see
we have a total of 16 pages. ling: wow! that's amazing! kang: there should be at least 100 or moreof these maternity hotels in los angeles county alone. ling: but exact numbers are elusive, evenimpossible to determine. places aren't licensed. there are never any outdoor signs, and althoughinteriors are set up for multiple tenants, exteriors of the "hotels" are just typicalhomes in typical neighborhoods. this house for example is set up for birth tourism, butthe only indication is the preponderance of pregnant women coming and going.
ling: what kind of people are coming overhere to have babies? kang: usually it's people who have accumulatedquite an amount of wealth, those who are in business, those who are in politics. it saysbabies born in the u.s. automatically become a u.s. citizen, according to the 14th amendmentto the u.s. constitution. ling: so are they trying to assure parentsthat what they're doing is legal according to the constitution? kang: i think so. ling: the 14th amendment says that "all personsborn or naturalized in the united states, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, arecitizens of the united states and of the state
wherein they reside.†the amendment waspassed in 1868 after the civil war to guarantee citizenship to emancipated slaves and theirchildren. subsequent supreme court cases upheld automatic citizenship to children born inthe u.s. to immigrant parents, and that's how it stands to this day. ling: is it illegal for foreigners to comeover here to have babies? kang: there is no law that says it is illegalfor foreigners to come over here and then give birth to a child. when they come overhere as tourists, they can travel or they can visit friends or visit relatives, andin the meantime, they can have babies. i mean, it's hard to draw the line whether or notyou are a tourist or you came here specifically
to give birth to a child. ling: because a lot of people who are givingbirth are also doing a lot of tourism? kang: that’s right. that’s right. ling: is it a loophole though? are peopletaking advantage of what seems to be a loophole? kang: it is not necessarily a loophole. it'speople making the best use of the law that's in existence today. ling: huge numbers of mainland chinese docome here for pure tourism. in the past ten years, tourist visas from china have increased438 percent to well over a million people a year. and that's expected to rise to twomillion by 2015. u.s. customs and border protection
has no specific regulation prohibiting whatthey call "pregnant foreign nationals" from entering the country, although their policystates that "officers take into consideration the date your child is due for delivery andthe length of time you intend to stay in the u.s. if it's determined that you don't havesufficient medical insurance, you can be denied entry." the policy is enforced at the discretionof the admitting officer, but since pregnant visitors have legitimate visas and insistthey're here for tourism, officers typically admit them. ling: because there are so many maternityhotels nearby, this hospital is a popular place for birth tourists to have their babies.and don't forget, these families don't carry
american insurance, so everything is paidfor in cash: prenatal care, the actual delivery, and then there's the age-old chinese traditionof having nursing and nutritional care for the mom and baby every day for the first thirtydays after birth. it all adds up to a pretty substantial infusion of pure cash. "cash" that's surely in the multi-millions.as china's elite, most of the women have the money, and – while waiting for the baby– the time to do lots of upscale shopping. but some say the short-term economic boostisn’t worth the long term effect. lou alfonso/board member, chinese americanassociation of chino hills: if they have a u.s. passport, they can have free elementary,high school education, and then apply for
college for a reduced tuition in the cal statecollege in california or anywhere in the state. that's not right. ling: lou alfonso is a board member of thechinese american association of chino hills. recently, the organization joined with othersin the community to protest a large residence being used as a birth tourism hotel. protesters [in picket line]: not here! notanywhere! ling: the place was eventually closed andthe owner fined for violating zoning codes and building and safety ordinances. ling: what is unfair about birth tourism?
alfonso: it’s just the whole process, thebusiness and the magnitude of the birth tourism, business operators exploiting the 14th amendmentof the constitution of the united states. what’s happening with these maternity hotelsis an entirely sinister kind of way of achieving u.s. citizenship. ling: so you believe it's the agents who aresoliciting women to come over here. they are the ones who are taking advantage of the 14thamendment. alfonso: more so than the women. more so thanthe women because they're profiting from it. ling: you talked about there being a rightway and a wrong way to becoming a citizen. alfonso: first get your immigrant visa, aresident immigrant visa or green card. stay
in the u.s. for five years. work, pay yourtaxes, learn the culture, learn the language, learn the values, learn the way of life. andif after five you want to become a u.s. citizen, feel free to do so, like myself. who wouldnot want their child to be born in the u.s.?
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