US Authorities have arrested Three people on charges of running “birth tourism” companies catering to Chinese clients in Southern California. The arrest was made on Thursday. According to Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office, criminal charges of this sort have been never been filed before in a US federal court.
“Birth tourists” are people that travel to foreign countries to give birth, in order to acquire the citizenship of that country for their new born child. And because the legal principle of jus soliautomatically applies in the US it automatically confers citizenship upon babies born on US soil. However, countries such as Switzerland and Japan etc do not grant citizenship automatically unless one or more parents also holds citizenship.
The arrested have remained silent and have not made any statements to the Authorities.All 3 arrested individuals were have been charged with “conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, international money laundering and identity theft,” according to the Department of Justice.
The charges have stemmed from a 2015 raid which hunted down dozens of alleged “maternity hotels,”often upscale apartments, where mothers were employed to give birth to surrogate children, they were being paid between $15,000 to $50,000 to give birth in the US, according to a statement given at the time by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
