Lou Alfonso
Angry neighbors picketed outside a Chino Hills, California, maternity hotel in December
By Anna Schecter
Rock Center
This is an update to a previous report from October 28, 2011.
UPDATE: There has been uproar in neighborhoods across Los Angeles county in recent months over a controversial industry called birth tourism. Wealthy foreign women in the late stages of pregnancy fly to the United States and stay at special maternity hotels. The women stay just long enough to give birth and obtain U.S. birth certificates and passports for their newborns.
These maternity hotels are often run out of single family homes in suburbia. Angry neighbors picketed outside a Chino Hills, California, maternity hotel until authorities shut it down for zoning and code violations in December, 2012.
Birth tourism has also ignited outrage on Capitol Hill.
"They are gaming the system…and people should be put in jail,” said Representative Phil Gingrey (R-Ga), one of several members of Congress trying to put an end to birth tourism.
The United States is the only country in the developed world other than Canada that grants jus soli or birthright citizenship. The U.S. law dates back to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified after the Civil War to ensure that all freed slaves and their children would be American citizens.
NBC News gained access to four birth tourism centers in the New York City borough of Queens. The owners, all women, said they know their industry is controversial, but they hope it will soon be recognized and supported by the U.S. government.
“Yes, our business is a sensitive topic, but we have a lot to offer the American culture and economy,” said Katie, a business owner who asked that her last name not be used.
“These women are the economic elite…and they are fueling the economy here. I take them on shopping trips…one woman bought 15 Coach bags,” said Katie, who said she piles her pregnant clients into her van for the hour and a half drive to Woodbury Commons, an upscale outlet mall in New York where shoppers can indulge in such luxury brands as Prada, Gucci, Dior, and Coach.
Katie runs her business out of two houses, one for pregnant women and one across the street for new mothers and their babies.
“I spoke to a lawyer before opening my business to make sure I would not get into trouble with U.S. authorities,” she said.
As with the other businesses NBC News visited in New York, many of Katie’s pregnant clients are Chinese women who were already in the United States or who travel back and forth between countries. She said the percentage of her clientele who are birth tourists varies from month to month, but she has had close to 150 clients in all since she opened her business in 2008.
She said her clients all want the comforts and familiarity of the traditional Chinese practice of zuo yuezi, a term used for the month of rest and recuperation for the mother following birth. According to Chinese tradition, the mother rests while the babies are cared for by a nurse. Feeding, bathing and sleeping times are meticulously organized in charts. A chef cooks a special diet of Chinese food with lots of meat, seafood, and cooked vegetables for new mothers. They eat five times a day, and do special exercises to slowly build back their core muscles.
Lou Alfonso
Angry neighbors picketed outside a Chino Hills, California, maternity hotel
“Chinese culture has a lot to offer in terms of pregnancy and new mothers’ health,” said Katie, who added she hopes that her business can spread the healthy traditions to other cultures.
Her business also helps the women navigate the logistics of obtaining American birth certificates, passports, and Social Security numbers for their babies before they fly home to China.
“We help them get information, even drive them to where they need to go to get the papers, so in the fastest possible time, they can get everything settled,” she said.
The cost of the rooms in her house range from $2,000 to $5,000 per month, depending on the size of the room, length of stay, and the woman’s financial resources. The price includes food, laundry, and care for the baby.
The women give birth in hospitals near the birth tourism centers, paying in cash. The hospital fees alone can reach as much as $10,000. Parents usually stay three to four months and spend a total of as much as $30,000 for lodging, airfare, and medical expenses.
Katie said demand has grown so much that she had to rent her second house last year.
“In August alone I had to say no to three prospective clients,” she said.
One wealthy new mother renting a room at Katie’s facility told NBC News that she came to the United States from an eastern Chinese city for the final three months of her pregnancy.
“For my baby, it’s a chance to, a step to two countries’ cultures…Chinese culture and American culture,” said Mrs. Chao, who asked not to be identified by her full name.
While in the United States, Mrs. Chao and her husband bought an iPad, suits and dress clothing, luxury brand perfumes and baby clothes from brands like Polo by Ralph Lauren.
She said that she hopes her newborn daughter, Emily, will return to the United States to attend high school and college. When Emily is 21, she could apply for her parents to become legal residents in America.
Lily, from Beijing, was also staying at Katie’s facility, and asked that her last name not be used. She told NBC News that she was pregnant with her fourth daughter and that she would have to pay a fine if she were to give birth in China. China’s one-child policy discourages women from having more than one baby.
Emmy, staying in the room next to Lily’s, came from Shanghai to give birth. She said she hopes to bring her daughter, her second, to the United States for schooling.
“The mentality is healthier for children in America,” said Emmy. “In China, the children are under too much pressure in school and they have to take too many tests.”
There are no official numbers on how many women are coming to the United States as birth tourists. The most recent statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics show that births of babies on American soil to foreign mothers increased from 5,009 births in 2000 to 7,462 births in 2008. This is a tiny percentage of the more than four million babies born in America each year. There is no tracking system in place to record which countries the mothers are from or why they are in the United States.
Most of the pregnant women come to the United States legally on tourist or business visas and the State Department says it cannot turn away a woman solely because she is pregnant. However, officials do have the right to turn pregnant women away if they can make the case that the woman is coming for the express purpose of taking advantage of American health care.
"When determining if an individual will be allowed to enter the U.S., Customs and Border Protection officers take into consideration the date the child is due for delivery and the length of time the individual intends to stay in the U.S.," a State Department spokesman said.
Southern California has been the hub for birth tourism centers for Asian women over the past decade, usually from South Korea and China.
In March of this year, authorities in the Los Angeles suburb of San Gabriel closed one center after neighbors complained about noise from the babies.
“It was kind of strange seeing the pregnant women walking around,” neighbor Taylor Alderson told NBC News.
City officials closed the center for operating a business in a residential area without a permit. The owner was fined $800.
Still, birth tourism businesses have popped up across the nation over the past five years.
NBC News found dozens of web sites offering packages to expectant parents from around the world, including China, South Korea, Turkey and Eastern Europe. They advertise birth tourism centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, and New York.
Some of the Web sites blatantly advertise the advantages of free public school in America, a chance to get grants to colleges like Harvard and Yale, and an easier path for the whole family to get green cards once the child turns 21.
Republican lawmakers have taken aim at birth tourism. Representative Gingrey introduced legislation in January that if passed would prevent the practice. He said that both Katie and Mrs. Chao, while not breaking the law, are certainly violating the “spirit” of America’s birthright citizenship law.
“They’re taking advantage of our country and they’re really not giving anything in return,” he said. “They have crunched the numbers and they know that even though they have spent $30,000 in this birth tourism cottage industry that in the long run, they’re going to get a whole lot more out of that than they put into it.”
Gingrey wants the 14th Amendment to be reinterpreted so that citizenship is only given to children born in the United States to at least one American parent or a parent who is a permanent resident.
“They have gamed the system and the misapplication of the 14th Amendment has allowed them to do that,” said Gingrey.
Angela Kelley, the vice president of immigration policy and advocacy for the Center for American Progress, disagrees with Gingrey. She said that a reinterpretation of the Constitution is unrealistic and would undermine the fundamental nature of the United States.
“I don't see this type of legislation having any traction, or being taken seriously,” said Kelley. “I think something as really fundamental and integral to this nation's character: that you're born here, you belong here, that we're not a country club that you apply to-- that would be met with enormous resistance from all sorts of quarters...from left and from the right.”
Kelley said that she does not in any way condone birth tourists.
“It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, the idea of somebody… taking advantage of something that is so unique and important to the character of this country as birthright citizenship,” she said.
However, Kelley argues that banning birth tourism would be impossible to enforce without drastic and unrealistic measures. She said enforcement would hypothetically require costly pregnancy tests for potential female visitors of childbearing age, a complete violation of a woman’s privacy.
“And really, our government resources being used to do that, rather than track down terrorists or other people who actually mean to do us harm? I mean, there's...a cost-benefit ratio here that's crazy, not to mention just frankly, insulting to women,” she said.
Looking at the issue as a whole, according to Kelley, the number of foreign women coming to the United States to give birth is extremely small and there are far bigger immigration problems for Congress to solve.
“Of the top 10 problems facing this country, this isn’t even in the top hundred,” said Kelley.
Editor's Note: Kate Snow's full report airs Friday, March 7 at 10pm/9c on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.
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Apparently we ARE a "country" club one can apply to, Ms. Kelly...if your wealthy enough.
Every REAL AMERICAN should read:
The Impact of Illegal Immigration on the Wages and Employment Opportunities of Black Workers:
http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr12im2010.pdf
Watching the show on Baby tourism (incidentally, that has been going on foreever in San Diego with Mexico coming up there to have American babies) and relating it to what's happening in our HUD housing. You will not believe that in San Diego Chinese legal immigrants who are not yet citizens are jamming our HUD housing. Why? We have large numbers of seniors there paying high rents in crummy hotels or SRO's and eating lunch at Father Joe's Village while Chinese immigrants are getting cheap rent in HUD housing. The benefits of citizenship should be for citizens, not immigrants who are not yet citizens, and HUD housing is a Benefit of Citizenship.
Just want to futher iterate that the Benefits of Citizenship in America should be for citizens. HUD senior housing is a benefit for citizens who have worked for many years and can use some financial help in senior housing when they retire. To have buildings jammed with Asians who are not yet citizens is unfair to the large number of seniors in San Diego. Only America is so generous to foreign senior immigrants. I checked, should I want to immigrate to Thailand, I would need $22,000 per year and there would be no senior housing, no free health care, etc. Only in retarded America. We need to cut the budget--start with HUD.
Does anyone find it strange that most of these families are Chinese? How are these people getting the money to spend this much time in the U.S. and pay cash for their births? Is there a bigger picture here? I think it is a little scary that they have such in interest in their children becoming U.S. citizens. Is the Chinese government behind this in there desire to become the greatest world power? Just sayin'.
The Red Chinese government is funding the project that is why the newscasters claim that illegal and uninspected and unlicensed hotels are 'perfectly legal' and nothing can be done about them. Red Chinese have money.
Actually, Chinese have money. Didn't you watch, I think on Rock Center, about the enormous number of new apartment buildings being built across China's major cities? They are not for the poor, these apartments cost over a hundred thousand to purchase. In their new, capitalistic economy, many million (out of close to two billions) Chinese are becoming wealthy, or, at the least, upper middle class and can afford baby tourism, big apartments in expensive high rises, etc.
We Americans should have stupid stamped on our foreheads for allowing this to happen.
We have journalists who pretend that health and safety issues in America can be resolved by slamming the door in the face of inspectors because the victims are Chinese aliens. Health and Safety emergency inspections, such as those for overcrowded and unlicensed and uninspected hotels are a primary law school topic for long recognized 4th Amendment exemptions.
I have a feeling if these moms were French or English, there would be no problem with their white babies being American. I hope you guys will do a segment on birth tourism by Europeans.
These people are coming to America legally, paying everything and taking nothing, create jobs and stimulate our economy. Their children once returns to their birth country will have multi-cultural advantages ordinary American do not enjoy, and contribute to America on their own terms.
Hate to say this NBC, perpetuating xenophobia is not good journalism. Just look at the bigoted comments this segment has elicited.
My son lives in Europe and would never return to America. Most Europeans do not migrate here, and never want anything to do with this country. They know it is going weird, they know the majority of immigrants come from formerly third world countries. They do not want what that group brings for their families, nor do they want to leave the socialistic comfort of their European house. They do have many problems there with Middle Eastern immigrants--they do not want to come here and face the problems we have with our multi-cultural immigrants, at the expense of the white American house, let alone the job loss our native Afro-Americans are facing from that unhealthy swarm. Europeans are not big baby tourists.
Another libtard red herring.
I really don't care where they came from, the anchor baby sham is clearly a loophole being abused. The 14th Amendment needs to be adjusted and clarified. We're not talking about recently freed slaves from the South anymore.
The premise that these unlicensed hotels "are perfectly legal" and 'how can you do anything about something that is perfectly legal' proposes that cramming people into tiny houses, overflowing sewer systems, lacking adequate sanitation for the residents and exposing infants to filth and disease is 'perfectly legal' because the people who are victimized are Chinese and they are being victimized by Chinese is incredible. If Whites were running these horrendously foul 'lovely birthing centers' the IRS, the State Franchise Tax Boards and more than likely the FBI would raid and shut them down for tax evasion and predating upon uninformed probably illiterate aliens.
The news casters who promote these hovels to loot these aliens are actively promoting illegal and unsanitary conditions by describing them as 'perfectly legal' and the concept that health and safety can be turned away from lawful inquiry defies reason--health and safety emergencies are a well known exception to Fourth Amendment protections
Why not try educating journalists instead of hiring those who promote depredations on aliens?
Can't help but wonder how many 'unlicensed and uninspected hotels' the newscaster herself has slept in and felt that there was nothing anyone could do about making certain the sheets and the towels were ever even laundered.
Just look on airbnb.com
The word is HUMAN TRAFFICKING and it IS illegal!
What is Angela Kelley the vice president of immigration policy and advocacy for the Center of American Progress thinking? Birth tourism is abusing the system. Think of all the people waiting for years to come to America, the legal way, if they do make it here. I say the countries they're from are planning for their own future investments in America.
Thank you NBC's Rock Center for speaking up for America!
All this outrage over wealthy, successful individuals gaming the 14th Amendment to eventually gain easier US citizenship for themselves (I say come on in!) while "anchor babies" pumped out here by the millions of people who illegally sneaked across our southern border to do the same is somehow a myth or nothing to be concerned about. Why?
The 14 amendment must be deleted and all those "citizens" taken off the roles, RETROACTIVELY. As for the comment by "Katie" that her clients fuel the economy - B.S. The notion of the Red Chinese government fueling this "red" tide - maybe. And can't you just hear them laughing?
you sound terribly racist.
This is clearly a double standard. It's a problem at all. These women came here with legit visas, spend tens of thousands of dollars in the US economy, and their babies will most likely grow up with their parents in China NOT using American resources. Yet this is perpetuated as shady, why? It's absolutely the parents' personal choices and none of others business. America has millions of illegal immigrants who are gaining undeserved sympathy; they are the big problem compared with the minimal scale of the so-call "birth tourism". Why do the Chinese parents want to have US-citizen babies? Status symbol, more options for their children's future, nothing wrong with that, they can afford to do it, who cares. The notion that these parents are abusing the 4th amendment is absurd. It will take at least 21 years for these Chinese parents to obtain US green cards. Shouldn't be your concern.
Well off chinese family planting a seed in the us of a... whats not to like here? Right now we have tons of international students in our colleges, most take their skill back to their growing economy, leaving us with nothing. Have some kid who is likely to come back at 18 to attend college and stay for a job, contribute to the us economy and pay income and social taxes... whats the problem here?
Dont see any social issues with doing this, the kid is unlikely to return until college, also unlikely to spend a dime but s/he has to pay taxes when they reach 18.
This story made me so mad to see how people are just taking advantage of this "old" and misinterpreted piece of constitution, that should be revised. I am from Brazil, came to the US to attend college and when graduated, got married to my husband. My kids were born in Germany, and many people think they have German citizenship, but just like Brazil, and many more countries, you have to have a parents from that particular country where you were born to get a citizenship. The United States have to protect themselves for this type of FRAUD that this baby tourism is.
At first, I was a little upset when I heard that people were coming to birth American babies, but after watching the video I became more upset at the comments by Brian Williams at the end, talking about how glad he was to expose this. I guess I just don't understand why an American parent has more of a right to give birth to an American baby than a parent from a different country. We were all immigrants. It's so difficult to become a citizen in America so why not make it easier for families to come here in the long run. Why do we want to keep people out? And they pay our hospitals in cash? Does that not make it easier to run our healthcare system which is drowning from ER visits from Americans who don't have any health insurance? I'm upset that an American can even feel like they are more entitled to something than someone else. That is not the America I was raised to believe in.
What is really shocking about birth tourism is that if the children of these foreign women, grow up and come to live in the USA for at least 14 years. they will be able to even become President of the United States of America, upon turning 35. As a result of being born on American soil.
Instead of bringing productive people to USA they bring these Chinese. All this yellow race has demonstrated poor genetic material. They are the most sneakiest people among all races in the world, they always think how to cheat always the government on taxes, are ungrateful, dishonest etc. Most of them have these low moral standards ingrained into them by the environment where they are grown up. But they work hard, this credit should be given to them. But I don't know any American who likes them because they have good character. And it has been seen that almost none of them are leaders in private corporations in USA, or high up executives because they lack character and back stab others, so they can't be trusted as people, and don't go far enough up high.
I bet you have never talked to a Chinese person or seen one. You probably have no idea that there are many of you "white" people who are more despicable than Chinese people.
The Chinese are more productive than "white people." Who lost thousands of lives to build the railroads? How many million workers under American international companies make the products you use everyday under the most difficult conditions? The Chinese do. They made the continental railroad. They create every single "Made in China" products. They made your iPad.
Chinese people live on Confucianism which offers a guided moral chivalry. What does America have? The bible? An antiquated text that offers contradictory information.
This isn't even the point I'm trying to make.
In this global society, you're still trying to pin a specific race to try and better your image. You are insecure with what you are born with. At least the Chinese who come to America respect America, whereas you can't even respect those who respect you. You have the mindset of an uncultured racist of the 19th century and you'll never fit into this ever changing society, unless you change your ways.