Did you know there exists a highly lucrative business in America that consists of helping pregnant Chinese women get into the U.S. merely to give birth and get their children passports? Yep, neither did I.
From Bloomberg:
Fiona He gave birth to her second child, a boy, on Jan. 24, 2015, at Pomona Valley Hospital in Southern California. The staff was friendly, the delivery uncomplicated, and the baby healthy. He, a citizen of China, left the hospital confident she had made the right decision to come to America to have her baby.
She’d arrived in November as a customer of USA Happy Baby, one of an increasing number of agencies that bring pregnant Chinese women to the States. Like most of them, Happy Baby is a deluxe service that ushers the women through the visa process and cares for them before and after delivery.
There are many reasons to have a baby in the U.S. The air is cleaner, the doctors generally are better, and pain medication is dispensed more readily. Couples can evade China’s one-child policy, because they don’t have to register the birth with local authorities. The main appeal of being a “birth tourist,” though, is that the newborn goes home with a U.S. passport. The 14th Amendment decrees that almost any child born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen; the only exception is a child born to diplomats. He and her husband paid USA Happy Baby $50,000 to have an American son. If they had to, she says, they’d have paid more.
A week later, five men from Homeland Security Investigations, the sheriff’s department, and the fire department arrived. At first He thought they’d come from the homeowners’ association. Then she saw the bulletproof vests and handguns. They showed her a search warrant. She recognized the translator from the previous visit. “Then they asked me a lot of questions, and I became nervous,” she says.
The HSI agents told He she wasn’t in trouble. That turned out to be only sort of true. They were investigating the owners of USA Happy Baby—Dong and her husband, Michael Liu—for suspected tax evasion, money laundering, and visa fraud. Although it’s legal to travel to the U.S. to give birth, it’s illegal to lie about the purpose of a visit—or coach someone to do so. For two hours the agents gathered documents, including the family’s passports, and made copies of He’s e-mails and texts. “They took my son’s immunization record, even the paper I used to record his milk time,” she says.
Homeland Security and the IRS have been investigating the growing business of “birth tourism,” which operates in a legal gray area, since last June. The industry is totally unregulated and mostly hidden. Fiona’s apartment was one of more than 30 baby safe houses that HSI agents and local law enforcement searched in Southern California that day in March. They came with translators and paramedics, almost 300 people in all. The investigators focused on three agencies—USA Happy Baby, You Win USA Vacation Resort, and Star Baby Care—using a confidential informant, undercover operations, and surveillance, according to three affidavits.
No one knows the exact number of Chinese birth tourists or services catering to them. Online ads and accounts in the Chinese-language press suggest there could be hundreds, maybe thousands, of operators. A California association of these services called All American Mother Service Management Center claims 20,000 women from China gave birth in the U.S. in 2012 and about the same number in 2013. These figures are often cited by Chinese state media, but the center didn’t reply to a request for comment. The Center for Immigration Studies, an American organization that advocates limiting the scope of the 14th Amendment, estimates there could have been as many as 36,000 birth tourists from around the world in 2012.
The U.S. and Canada are the only developed countries that grant birthright citizenship. For those who believe U.S. immigration policies are too generous, birth tourism has become a contentious issue. “It’s like somebody giving birth in your living room and saying they’re part of your family,” says Ira Mehlman, the spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
After the March raids, 29 Chinese mothers and relatives were designated material witnesses and ordered to stay in Southern California until the federal court decided they could leave. Fiona He moved from her apartment in Rancho Cucamonga to one in another part of the Inland Empire. “I want my children to have the best they can,” she says. “But I had no idea I would have this trouble. We didn’t hurt anyone. We just found an easy way to stay here to give birth. Is that wrong?
If a woman says she’s traveling to give birth, the consular and customs officers may request proof that she can pay for her hospital stay. (The same would be asked of anybody seeking medical treatment in the U.S.) “Keep every single one of your invoices as evidence that you didn’t use the public charge,” Zhai says, referring to Medicaid. “If you have receipts with big sums, such as a watch worth tens of thousands, or a diamond ring, save those too.”
The consular and customs officers “may” ask for proof?
There’s a lot of money to be made in laundering Chinese money into America, as well as in getting Chinese citizens a green card or residency. Recall:
How Chinese Oligarchs Used Fake Trade Invoices to Launder Almost $1 Trillion Globally
How the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is Selling Residency to Chinese “Investors” at $500k a Pop
Open the Floodgates – Chinese Inquiries on U.S. Real Estate Soar 35% After Easing of Visa Rules
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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TOO BAD FOR THE AMERICAN BABY THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS, IF ANYONE WHO IS WITH CHILD, SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO TOUR THE USA PERIOD. YOU ARE EXPECTED TO GIVE BIRTH YOU SHALL NOT BE ALLOWED A VISA OR COME INTO THIS COUNTRY OF THE USA.
The ancient Chinese strategist, Sun Tsu, is clearly the inspiration for China’s massive gold accumulation. If you read his famous book, The Art of War, you may note that he recommended destroying enemies by attacking their economic base, rather than by mounting overt physical attacks. That is exactly what China is doing to the USA. America’s policy-makers have stumbled into China’s trap.
Once China has enough gold, it will bid up the yuan-denominated price into the stratosphere. Once it does that, there are only three choices. First, maintain credibility and the reserve currency status by refusing to change the price of US dollar denominated gold. If it does that, domestic industries will be crippled by Chinese competition, because the yuan will become very cheap in relation to the dollar. Second, allow the dollar denominated price of gold to skyrocket in synch with the yuan denominated price. That will end the US dollar’s reserve currency status. Third, kow-tow to Beijing, seeking a seal of approval from China for any serious financial maneuvers.
None of America’s choices are good ones. At this point, no matter what the USA does, China wins. Making things worse is the fact that it will be nearly impossible to prove China is a “currency manipulator” based on the IMF rules. China will simply point to the SGE, explain how the price is set by supply and demand, and win any arbitration brought against it.
It is impossible to know the exact date China will launch its final effort to strip America of its power and authority in the world. But, the current massive gold buying is clearly the main step necessary to do so. China is determined to take power, revenues and international leverage away from the USA. Meanwhile, hapless US policy makers appear to be blissfully unaware of what the Chinese are planning.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3178896-the-real-reason-china-is-buying-up-the-worlds-gold
bend the knee…..and thank your american politicians for selling you completely out.
The sooner the U.S. loses its “power and authority in the world” the better. I doubt that China could make a bigger mess of things than exist now. Maybe the U.S. will return to being a republic rather than an empire.
Empires always collapse by overextending themselves. The U.S. is just the next empire that will be noted in the history books. The founders tried to provide a framework to prevent the inevitable expansion they knew would occur. Unfortunately once the sociopaths took over it did not take long for the transition from republic to empire to begin.
Good riddance.
Look at it from the point of view of a money grubbing bureaucrat: that baby is now on the hook for U.S. income tax for the rest of his life. No matter where he lives. Keep this up and pretty soon a sizable part of the world population will owe taxes to the D.C. thieves.
People come to the USA to give birth? I’m a US citizen and left the USA to give birth!
Makes sense to me though….people need to hedge their bets the world over with all this craziness!
Unfortunately your child is still a tax slave to the U.S. Government. Now that the Feds have terrorized most of the other governments in the world, it will be very difficult to escape their reach. U.S. citizens are generally not welcome at financial institutions in other countries. Too much paperwork and intrusion from Washington in their business.
FATCA is actually a way to keep American slaves on the plantation by making it very difficult to live anywhere else. I believe China is one of few countries that has not signed the FATCA agreement. I doubt that these Chinese mothers even realize the noose they are placing around the necks of their children.
this seems far more important news to liberty blitzkrieg . mike, doesn’t this merrit more of your attention? the passing of the usa freedom act?
yes, they call a bill to allow court declared illegal spying, legal. ‘usa freedom act’. unreal.
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/house-passes-usa-freedom-act/
That is very important, thanks for highlighting. I warned about this before most people in the post: Congress is Attempting to Reauthorize Key Patriot Act Provisions by Sneaking it Into “USA Freedom Act”: http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/04/17/congress-is-attempting-to-reauthorize-key-patriot-act-provisions-by-sneaking-it-into-usa-freedom-act/
“Q: First, the spokesperson of Pope Francis said last week that the Pope would not meet with the Dalai Lama. Does China view it as a positive gesture by Vatican? Does China welcome it?
A: On your first question, we have noted the remarks by Vatican. The Chinese side is always sincere about improving and developing relations with Vatican. We are willing to continue constructive dialogues with Vatican based on relevant principles. It is hoped that Vatican will work with China in the same direction and create conditions for the improvement of bilateral relations.”
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang’s Regular Press Conference on December 15, 2014
http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/cgvienna/eng/fyrth/t1219433.htm
The lawful stockholders of THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, the Vatican and the British Monarchy are in constant negotiations with People’s Republic of China regarding the unavoidable sale of part of their shares to the new superpower. Everything will be settled after the US Dollar collapses and the subsequent new status of America as China’s protectorate.
The upcoming months seems very promising in the China–Holy See relations.