A Chinese national was sentenced to less than a year in prison on Monday for operating a “birth tourism” agency for more than two years in Orange County, California.
Dongyuan Li, a 41-year-old Chinese national, was sentenced in federal court to ten months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and one count of visa fraud. Between 2013 and 2015, Li operated the You Win USA birth tourism agency, helping to fraudulently secure birthright American citizenship for the children of more than 500 pregnant foreigners, earning $3 million in the process.
Federal prosecutors did not support the ten-month prison sentence for Li, arguing that she should have received years in prison to send a message to others operating birth tourism agencies.
Feds: Over 8.5K Anchor Babies Secure U.S. Citizenship Via ‘Birth Tourism’https://t.co/rCTNrG6QNg
— John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) February 5, 2019
In her plea agreement, Li admitted she charged foreign customers tens of thousands of dollars then placed them in various apartments in Orange County, where they would live until they gave birth on U.S. soil.
Li admitted Chinese customers were often coached by You Win USA to make false statements to the federal government in order to earn temporary visas to travel to the country. Li said customers were told to claim they were only planning to stay in the U.S. for two weeks, when in actuality, they were staying for at least three months to deliver their children.
Customs booked their flights from China to Hawaii, according to Li’s plea agreement, then Hawaii to Los Angeles, California, because they believed U.S. Customs would be less strict in the island state. Additionally, customers were coached by You Win USA on how to conceal their pregnancies to federal agents.
The U.S.-born children of foreign nationals are commonly known as “anchor babies.” There are at least 4.5 million anchor babies in the country, a population that exceeds the total number of annual American births, as about 300,000 anchor babies are born every year, exceeding the total number of American births in 48 states. Currently, the U.S. and Canada are the only developed nations in the world that offer unrestricted birthright citizenship.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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