Apr 09, 2015 03:12 PM

Chinese Moms at Heart of 'Anchor Baby' Probe

By Washington correspondent Zhang Yuanan and staff reporter Li Yan

U.S. agents raid an apartment in Irvine, California, on March 3 due to suspicions a birth tourism business was being run in it

(Beijing) – Lang Liyan was pleased to help when a Chinese-speaking woman phoned last summer and asked for a tour of the USA Star Baby Care birthing center she manages in Rowland Heights, California's Los Angles County.

The woman told Lang that she was shopping around on behalf of a pregnant cousin in China who wanted to give birth in the United States.

What Lang didn't know, however, was that the inquiring woman was actually working undercover for the U.S. government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), a branch of the Department of Homeland Security. Nor did she realize until later that USA Star Baby Care was one of dozens of "anchor baby" birthing centers targeted as part of a nationwide investigation.