CA Residents Protest Alleged Chinese 'Maternity Hotel'

On Saturday, Chino Hills, California residents protested an estate that they claim is being used by pregnant Chinese nationals as a “maternity hotel” so they can give birth to their children in the United States. Their children would consequently receive U.S. citizenship and all the benefits associated with it. 

According to the San Bernardino Sun, the group “Not In Chino Hills,” which formed two weeks ago and is composed of concerned local residents, held up signs that read “Not in Chino Hills” and “No Birth Tourism” at an intersection close to the “maternity hotel.” 

Chino Hills Mayor Art Bennett said the city’s code enforcement investigators have discovered rooms in the hilltop estate “were being rented out as motel rooms to bring in Chinese expectant mothers until they deliver a child” and that “substantial fees are charged.”

Protestors are livid that children born at the maternity hotel will have dual citizenship until they are 21 years of age, at which point they can bring other Chinese family members over to the United States. 

Rossana Mitchell, one of the group’s organizers, said the maternity hotel was morally wrong and noted that her father “came to this country from Peru and left us all (eight children) until he earned enough money to get us visas to come here legally.”

“All of us (children) worked in the system and have done really well. There are three doctors among the siblings,” Mitchell said. 

Protestors also said they have noticed pregnant Chinese women walking down the hill from the estate and being taken to Southern California tourist destinations like Disneyland and Venice Beach.  Other protestors said these Chinese women were having babies in this country so their children could later “infiltrate” the United States or return to America to attend college, taking benefits, spots, and aid from U.S.-born children. 

Protestor Kelly Good said that action should be against the doctors and the hospitals that are “contracting with this ‘hotel’ to treat these residents and their babies.”

“They are pregnant and their goal is to have a baby here in the United States so that the child can be a United States citizen,” Good said.