According to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, there are around 36,000 birth tourists who annually travel to the U.S. from other countries
Many Chinese mothers like A-Chan come to the U.S. to gain U.S. citizenship for their children. Under the 14th amendment, “ All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. ”
The women apply for a tourism visa and prepare the proof that they can pay for the trip and spend three to four months in the U.S. There are two ways of how they go through the process: One is to stay at a maternity hotel, the other is to rent an apartment or share with someone else. Some women have complaints about the risks of staying at a maternity hotel, to come to the U.S. by using a tourist visa. Also they do not know if they will give their child a promising future.
According to a report from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the department of regional planning cited that around 34 percent of the 70 locations were boarding house that violated the title 22 of the Los Angeles’planning and zoning. Los Angeles County closed down 34 maternity hotel operators for running a business on residential houses.
ICE spokesperson Lori K.Haley said, “There is nothing in the law that makes it illegal for pregnant women to enter the United States. However, if a pregnant woman or anyone else uses fraud or deception to obtain a visa or gain admission to the United States, that would constitute a criminal act and be a matter of interest to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). ”
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Birth tourism is a legitimate reason to travel to the U.S. if the mothers can prove that they can pay for the medical expense.
But the way of gaining citizenship for children seemed unfair to other U.S. citizens. Jon Feere from the office of Immigration studies doubted the process of birthright citizenship in his report : “State agencies do not instruct hospitals to differentiate between children born to diplomatic staff and those born to U.S. citizens or temporary or illegal aliens. Hospitals issue the same birth certificates to all newborns. ”.
Living in a maternity hotel.
A-Chan was a frequent visitor to the maternity hotel. She is 36 years old and is a stay-home mom. Her husband works for an information technology company. She spent three times in a maternity hotel in Monterey Park, Los Angeles. She came to deliver her babies to get their children American citizenships.
A-Chan thought it was valuable to spend the same amount of money to deliver babies in the U.S.
The maternity hotel contains food service, check-up to doctors, 2 or 3 shopping trips each week before giving birth, and one month of recovery after delivering. Moreover, the maternity hotel will help the newborn baby to get the documents including their U.S. passport, which ensures that they can travel freely between China and the U.S.
The maternity hotel location consists of apartments and houses. They have a cook, nannies, drivers and a few managers on site. There are different types of housing to choose, such as one person per house or two people or more per house are available, depending on how much the clients want to pay their rent.
A-Chan spent from $5,500 to $8,000 per month on the maternity hotel in Monterey Park in 2011, 2012 and 2015. She also spent $5000 on the agency fee.
She was satisfied with the service of the maternity hotel she first stayed at, but she did not favor the food they made. The hotel did not offer the fresh food she expected to get, such as jitang, a slow-cooked Chinese style chicken soup. Instead, they served frozen food.
The maternity hotel had claimed their nannies had a lot of experience. A-chan said that they charged thousands of dollars but did not hire a good nanny to take care her baby after delivery.
A-chan raised her volume when talking about the nanny that made her angry: “One time, I heard my baby burst out crying. I found out the nanny did not change my daughter’s diaper before she went to sleep. She supposed to do her work while she did not.”
A-chan tolerates the maternity hotel because she does not want to live in the U.S. for three months alone.
“It is inconvenient to rent a car and cook for yourself,”A-chan said.“Also, I have other mothers to talk to in maternity hotel, so I don’t feel lonely. ”
Living in an apartment
Zhudi Li was six months pregnant, before she came to the U.S.
She consults with a maternity hotel called Xiaolvma maternity hotel in Irvine that offers food, housing, an outing during weekend. She thinks she could be taken care thoroughly by the people working there.
When she was ready to pay the deposit, all the sudden she saw the negative comment left online that scares her.
The anonymous comment claimed the maternity hotel sold the mothers to a different location. Also, the author pointed out the location of the maternity hotel was in resident area which is not allowed to run business. The owner of the maternity hotel told the pregnant women better not to walk outside of the house in a group, in case they will be found out by the neighbors.
The owner of the hotel said it was a rumor spread by competing maternity hotels.
Zhudi even calls to confirm with the owner. But they tried to argue that the place was owned by one of their former partner who left the business. Zhudi cannot trust the owner and felt uncomfortable after doing the research. She asked her boss who had experiences in birth tourism for advice. She recommended Zhudi to rent a house, where she can spend less and make her food.
That’s when she found Sunnie, a friend of her boss, and decided to share an apartment with Sunnie and her family in diamond bar, Los Angeles.
Zhudi is unlike A-Chan, who trusts the maternity hotel business.
She decided to arrange everything herself, from her doctor’s appointments to the agent who can help her get the documents for hers on before she arrives in the U.S.
In the U.S., she spends most of her time in the house, making herself lunch and dinner, chatting with friends and family oversea and working 2 to 3 hours online.
But she felt it is hard to find someone to talk, and have someone share the experiences of delivering babies with her.
Inside of maternity hotel
Tom Jones is the American name of a former Chinese maternity hotel driver. He worked for a maternity hotel [in Irvine] in 2014 for a year. He drove the pregnant women to doctor’s appointments every Tuesday and drove them to shop three times a week.
He described his routine to get baby supplies as “at least four preserved pregnant ladies came out of my car. I saw it was a funny sight, that’show it works. ”
He thought that the maternity hotel exists because of Chinese families face language barriers and don’t know how to set up simple things like apartments and doctor’s appointments.
“This business preys on people’s desperation and ignorance, in combination with their large amount of cash in hand to pay for such services,” Tom said. “Just provides a service for which there is a huge demand.”
Tom said that the maternity hotel did not have a business license that can solve the health and human service problem.
There were also weaknesses related to the maternity hotel. Tom used Amy’s maternity hotel as an example. The pregnant women at that time had lots of complaints during their trips.
Read more...The maternity hotel did not have a clear settlement on if the ladies will be safe to deliver babies especially when the women are around the same term.
There is a certain danger with having all those heavily pregnant women around, because there might be emergency situations that people cannot handle, and that may have to put the ladies into life-threatening danger, ”Tom said.
“The maternity hotel is a fraud,”Marguerite Telford from the center for Immigration Studies said, “It is an industry that makes money. The only thing it can shut down is through the congress to do something about it.”
What’s the future?
A-Chan has three babies who were born in the U.S. she had to take them back to the U.S. to renew their passport once every five years. She just figured out she could get the document renew in China instead of the U.S.
She was struggled in sending the children back to U.S. for education. A-Chan wants to stay with her children in the U.S., but she only has a tourist visa that can grant her to remain in the U.S. for six months. If not sending them to U.S., A-Chan needs to pay for their tuition to a private school in China, which is much more expensive than public school.
Unlike A-Chan, Zhudi still thinks about coming back to the U.S. with her son.
She does not want to let her son know he has American citizenship until he is old enough to attend middle school. She hopes to send him to the U.S. after he finished studying at the elementary school
“I can also apply to school, no matter what, we have to stay together in a family. ” She said.
Zhudi said that, with the hope for a better life for her son. Even though she cannot answer if she and her husband can all stay in the U.S., and how they are going to pay off the live expense.
The future ahead
Zhudi wants her son to come to the U.S. after elementary school; A-Chan does not know when she will send her children to the U.S.
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