Woman sentenced for helping pregnant Chinese women get to U.S.

Yahoo

28-01-2025

A California woman was sentenced to more than three years behind bars for her role in a "birth tourism" scheme in which women traveled to the U.S. to give birth, giving the child birthright citizenship, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California confirmed.
Jing Dong, also known as Phoebe Dong, and her husband, Michael Wei Yueh Liu, were convicted in September on one charge each of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering. Liu was sentenced last year to 41 months in prison, the same sentence Dong received.
While the case is years old, the sentencing comes as President Donald Trump seeks to end birthright citizenship. He instituted an executive order in an attempt to end it, but a federal judge in Seattle temporarily blocked the order. Under the 14th Amendment, children born in the U.S. are considered American citizens. Some expectant mothers travel to the U.S. to give birth as a way of gaining American citizenship for their children.
Dong and Liu were among more than a dozen people indicted in 2019 on birth tourism charges. The 19 individuals charged, who were linked to three different schemes, allegedly helped thousands give birth in the U.S. According to authorities, the three businesses advertised the U.S. as being "the most attractive nationality" with better educational resources, including "free education from junior high school to public high school."
"America's way of life is not for sale," Joseph Macias, then special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles, said in a 2019 press release about the indictments. "HSI will aggressively target those who would make a mockery of our laws and our values to benefit and enrich themselves. No one needs to be reminded about the national security and public safety implications of visa fraud and the crimes associated with it. Anyone who would exploit our nation's generosity and our legal immigration system should be on notice - they may end up being the ones to pay a very steep price."
Between January 2012 and March 2015, Dong and Liu charged Chinese clients tens of thousands of dollars to help them give birth in the U.S., according to the Department of Justice. They ran a maternity house in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and rented apartment units to pregnant Chinese women. The women would usually return to China within one to two months of giving birth.
While pregnant individuals can visit the U.S., Customs and Border Protection on its website notes that officers will take into account a pregnant individual's due date and the length of time they plan to stay in the U.S. when deciding if that person will be allowed into the country.
Liu and Dong would advise their customers on how to hide their pregnancies, authorities said. Through their business USA Happy Baby Inc., they'd advise customers to fly into the U.S. through "ports of entry with perceived less customs scrutiny, such as Hawaii, before flying to Los Angeles, to wear loose fitting clothing, to favor certain lines at customs that they perceived to be less strict, and on how to answer the customs officials' questions," the Justice Department said.
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