Irvine-based immigration attorney Ken Zhiyi Liang has been arrested and charged with repeated witness tampering for assisting multiple material witnesses in fleeing the United States, in violation of orders in the March Chinese “maternity tourism” scandals.
Federal arrest warrants were issued for eleven Chinese nationals last week, targeting clients of so-called “maternity tourism” businesses who had fled back to China after being ordered to stay in the U.S. as material witnesses. None of the the owners of the three maternity tourism operations raided in early March have yet been charged for any crime, according to the Orange County Register.
After having been busted for a scheme to have U.S. citizen babies here, Chinese women are fighting to stay in the country despite allegedly committing visa fraud.ving been busted for the practice, they are fighting to stay in the country despite allegedly committing visa fraud.
Among the numerous allegations facing “maternity tourism” company You Win USA, targeted among other companies in a federal raid last week, is the accusation that the company defrauded a local Orange County hospital by failing to pay potential millions in fees, or paying
Pregnant Chinese nationals have reportedly been coming to the United States for decades in order to give birth and claim U.S. citizenship for their children. Many newly-rich Chinese have done so not only to secure the benefits and protections that come with U.S. citizenship, but also, according to court documents and media reports, as a show of wealth and status.
Court documents related to warrants for the raid Mar. 3 of “maternity tourism” scheme Starbabycare and several other such enterprises in Southern California detail translated portions of that company’s website, which state that the company had served 8,000 pregnant women since 1999.
Pregnant women from China discovered in California “Chinese birthing houses” could likely still give birth in the U.S. during the course of a massive investigation into multiple “maternity tourism” schemes. “Birth tourism” operations bring pregnant women into the U.S. for the purpose of giving birth on U.S. soil, giving their babies U.S. citizenship.
Several of the customers identified in a “maternity tourism” scheme in California are employees of the Chinese government, including the provinces of Ningxia and Henan, according to court documents issued in the course of obtaining search warrants.
