A federal judge has revoked the naturalized American citizenship of a Chinese couple who initially arrived in the United States on H-1B visas, after they were convicted of stealing medical trade secrets for China.
This week, Judge James E. Simmons Jr. entered an order revoking the naturalized American citizenship of Li Chen and Yu Zhou, who each pleaded guilty in 2020 to one count of conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
“Gaining citizenship after committing serious crimes against the American people is an unacceptable abuse of our immigration system,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “These latest denaturalizations illustrate this Department of Justice’s focus on ensuring that citizenship remains a privilege to obtain, not a right to abuse.”
Chen, a Chinese national, first entered the U.S. in 2007 on an H-1B visa and was employed by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH). The following year, in 2008, Zhou arrived in the U.S. on an H-1B visa and was also employed at the NCH.
Both Chen and Zhou adjusted their immigration statuses in 2011. Chen was rewarded naturalized citizenship in 2016, while Zhou secured naturalized citizenship in 2017.
In 2019, Chen and Zhou were arrested after they were accused of stealing medical trade secrets from NCH research scientists and selling them to sources in China.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) found that Chen and Zhou, who were receiving funding from the People’s Republic of China’s State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs, received nearly $1.5 million in transactions related to their theft of such trade secrets.
After having pleaded guilty in 2020, Chen was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release, while Zhou was sentenced to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com.