Federal Agents Crack Down on Birth Tourism and Maternity Hotels
Birth tourism is a burgeoning industry where pregnant women from other countries travel to the United States for the purpose of giving birth. These women are eager to take advantage of the fact that a child born in the U.S. automatically is a U.S. citizen and entitled to the benefits that come with it.
Wealthy foreign women pay from $40,000 to $80,000 to stay in American “maternity hotels” in New York, Los Angeles, or elsewhere in the U.S. They arrive when pregnant and leave with their infants shortly after birth. These babies are “golden tickets” for their parents. When the children turn 21, they can petition for green cards for their parents, qualify for college loans and grants which are only available to U.S. citizens, and enter and leave the United States easily.
Last month, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service raided more than 30 maternity hotels in Los Angeles. It is not illegal to come to the U.S. to give birth, but violates the law to lie on a visa application. The operators of “maternity hotels” coach their clients to lie on their applications and falsely state they are visiting the U.S. as tourists or vacationers, but hide their true purpose.
This practice poses dangers to the unborn children and their mothers and is unfair to hard working men and women who have followed the proper path to citizenship. The practice has caught the attention of immigration and other federal agents. According to press reports, they did not make arrests during the raids, but gathered evidence and found witnesses to prosecute or sue the operators for criminal, tax and other legal violations.
Immigration law is confusing. If you have questions, talk to a skilled Nashville immigration attorney familiar with the issues. Contact the Law Office of Perry A. Craft, PLLC. Attorney Craft will answer your questions.
