'Birthing tourism' center in San Gabriel shut down
Pregnant women came from China to three identical townhouses to receive care before and after giving birth to U.S. citizens at local hospitals.
By Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times EXCERPT:
March 25, 2011
From the outside, they looked like other recently built San Gabriel townhouses two stories, Spanish style, with roofs of red tile.
Inside they were maternity centers for Chinese women willing to pay handsomely to travel here to give birth to American citizens.
Southern California has become a hub of so-called birthing tourism. Operators of such centers tend to try to blend in, attracting as little attention as possible.
But on quiet, residential Palm Avenue, neighbors had noticed an unusual number of pregnant women going in and out, and some complained about noise.
On March 8, code enforcement officials shut down three identical four-bedroom townhouses functioning as an unlicensed birthing center.
The homes, officials said, had been converted into maternity centers. Inside, they found about 10 mothers and seven newborns.
"The people were sitting and eating at a table. All the babies were in bassinets with a nurse attending to them," said Jennifer Davis, San Gabriel's director of community development.
The city fined the manager of the property, Dwight Chang of Arcadia, $800. He was cited for illegal construction and ordered to acquire permits and return the buildings to their original condition.
"They had moved walls around without proper permits. They did interior work that can sometimes create unsafe environments afterwards," Davis said. "And it's a business in a residential neighborhood. They are not permitted to operate there."
The Chinese mothers have since left the U.S. or moved into hotels, officials said. On Wednesday, construction work in the houses was underway. The doors were open, and visible inside was the detritus of a hasty departure boxes of diapers, a baby-bottle sterilizer, a rice cooker, an electric kettle, bags of chopsticks and piles of Chinese-language magazines.
The garage of one of the buildings appeared to have been converted into an extra bedroom.
"It felt like something wasn't right in there," said Taylor Alderson, who was shocked to hear what had been going on next door. "There was a constant barrage of pregnant women going in and out of the house."
END EXCERPT
No, there is no such thing as Anchor Babies...
Pregnant women came from China to three identical townhouses to receive care before and after giving birth to U.S. citizens at local hospitals.
By Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times EXCERPT:
March 25, 2011
Inside they were maternity centers for Chinese women willing to pay handsomely to travel here to give birth to American citizens.
Southern California has become a hub of so-called birthing tourism. Operators of such centers tend to try to blend in, attracting as little attention as possible.
But on quiet, residential Palm Avenue, neighbors had noticed an unusual number of pregnant women going in and out, and some complained about noise.
On March 8, code enforcement officials shut down three identical four-bedroom townhouses functioning as an unlicensed birthing center.
The homes, officials said, had been converted into maternity centers. Inside, they found about 10 mothers and seven newborns.
"The people were sitting and eating at a table. All the babies were in bassinets with a nurse attending to them," said Jennifer Davis, San Gabriel's director of community development.
The city fined the manager of the property, Dwight Chang of Arcadia, $800. He was cited for illegal construction and ordered to acquire permits and return the buildings to their original condition.
"They had moved walls around without proper permits. They did interior work that can sometimes create unsafe environments afterwards," Davis said. "And it's a business in a residential neighborhood. They are not permitted to operate there."
The Chinese mothers have since left the U.S. or moved into hotels, officials said. On Wednesday, construction work in the houses was underway. The doors were open, and visible inside was the detritus of a hasty departure boxes of diapers, a baby-bottle sterilizer, a rice cooker, an electric kettle, bags of chopsticks and piles of Chinese-language magazines.
The garage of one of the buildings appeared to have been converted into an extra bedroom.
"It felt like something wasn't right in there," said Taylor Alderson, who was shocked to hear what had been going on next door. "There was a constant barrage of pregnant women going in and out of the house."
END EXCERPT
No, there is no such thing as Anchor Babies...
