Maternity Mansion Uproar: Home Offered to Pregnant Women in China for US Citizenship
A mansion in California that was suspected of sex trafficking has raised further uproar after neighbors charge that the home is being used to lure pregnant women from China to give birth to their children for a high cost.
Neighbors are outraged after discovering what they believe to be a "maternity mansion." The 7-bedroom home has been linked to a site in China that offers high-priced birthing services in exchange for American-born babies, according to news reports.
The address is AsiamChild.com and offers varying maternity packages with rates anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000, according to ABC News. Listed as a "worthwhile investment," the online business allows foreign mothers to give birth to their children through American medical standards. The children become naturalized citizens by the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to any child born on American soil.
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The neighbors are incensed and eager to have their voices heard, so word will spread about the type of business that is operating out of the Chino Hills home.
Rossana Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Not In Chino Hills group that has been developed to respond to the "maternity mansion," has stated that such a business could give the neighborhood a bad reputation.
"We are trying to get the word out that we are not going to condone this type of behavior and allow this type of business to come into our family-oriented community," Mitchell, 22, told ABC.
Residents first raised concern about the home after they noticed a number of pregnant women surfacing from the house and feared a sex operation.
The website also mentions advice about hiding pregnancies from Customs and Borders Protection agents and the perks of having children in the United States, including free public education.
"It's so blatant and from doing my research, this is an epidemic and it's nationwide," Mitchell added. "It's a way to buy citizenship. We don't want it here in Chino Hills."
