Dwight Chang of Arcadia is owner of a house on the 1300 block of South Palm Avenue in San Gabriel. The building has been operating as a makeshift maternity ward with 10 newborns and about 12 Chinese nationals, crammed into an illegally converted townhouse. Chang has been warned twice before for operating a business that primarily caters to Asian "maternity tourists." Chang denied any wrongdoing and was fined $800 for building code violations. Children born on American soil automatically become United States citizens, under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Maternity tourism caters to wealthy Taiwanese, Chinese and Koreans. Throughout the past decade, similar set-ups have been uncovered in Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, New York, and Quebec.
Birth-tourism sites not easily detected.Terry Moore-Corse, a code enforcement officer in Arcadia has encountered three maternity homes in the past six years, most recently in 2009, when a resident reported "a lot of pregnant women" coming out of a house. Beyond building code and business license violations, there is nothing illegal about coming into this country to give birth, according to the U.S. State Department, which issues visas. Maternity tourism is a money-making cottage industry in which wealthy women from Asia pay anywhere from $25,000-35,000 to have American-born infants.
Arcadia Police close 13 maternity homes in a crackdown months after a full-time detective was assigned to address calls about pregnant Asian women living in groups at residences around the city. The pregnant Asian women come to the U.S. so their babies receive U.S. citizenship. Detective James Trabbie became the quality-of-life detective.
Steve and Yan-Fen Lin, a couple possibly of Arcadia, have been running the illegally modified townhome in San Gabriel, owned by Dwight Chang of Arcadia, as a maternity home for Asian tourists. They violated building codes for setting up a makeshift maternity ward.
Women are stronger together. The Wandering Foot Quilt Guild meets in Arcadia. This group of women teaches quilting and gives back to the community by giving 50-70 items a month to USC Medical Center for low income people with illnesses.
The 2010 All-Area Girls Tennis was named. Those from Arcadia High School are Caroline Young, Michelle Zhu, Francis Dean, Annie Tung and Elizabeth Lieu. Coach of the Year is Jerry Dohling. An Arcadia High School girl on the second team is Nadia Pacheco-Amaro.
Arcadia city officials are cracking down on "maternity tourism" boarding houses by dedicating a full-time police detective to investigate the issue. Maternity or birth tourism is a phenomenon in which women, often from China, pay a handsome fee to have their babies in the United States, so the children can be citizens. While that is not illegal, at least five establishments have been shut down for violations, such as unlawfully operating boarding house businesses in residential zones.
Chinese-Americans getting political. Residents becoming more active as they back recall of Governor Gavin Newsom and other conservative efforts. Photo shows women gathering signatures outside 99 Ranch Market in Arcadia.
Arcadia housing boom with Chinese dollars? Bloomberg BusinessWeek says kickbacks and Chinese cash deals are fueling the rapid growth of mansions in Arcadia.
The trial for Isaac Campbell, charged with the murder of Liya "Jessie" Lu, has been delayed to give the Public Defender Jim Duffy time to transcribe a set of tapes from follow-up witness interviews from August. Lu went missing August 11, 2007 and her body was discovered a month later in the trash can of Campbell's friend's house in Arcadia.
46th Annual Mayor's Community Breakfast to honor women of Arcadia, on February 21, 2020. Mayor April Verlato will give the State of the City Address. Dr. Jasmine Sharma will give keynote address
Social media for Chinese-speaking users. City of Arcadia is adding WeChat to the Arcadia Conect social media program in an ongoing effort to improve outreach to the city's Chinese community. See also Arcadia Weekly, February 1, 2018, p. 1, 10.
Los Angeles County home sales dropped 8.6% last month from a year earlier. Arcadia, however, shows a 4.1% increase in median home price, from a year ago December. Arcadia's median home price was $692,000 last month. Figures for California state, Los Angeles and other San Gabriel Valley cities are shown.
Entrepreneur Kin Hui, CEO of Singpoli Capital Corp., unveiled North America's first Chinese language website exclusively devoted to the sport of horse racing. It is called YUPRacing.com. It features several Chinese language videos which showcase the beauty of Santa Anita Park and will take bets.