A Californian man was sentenced to almost three-and-a-half years in prison on Monday for running a business that helped affluent Chinese tourists “hide their pregnancies” from immigration officials so they could give birth on American soil and grant their children U.S. citizenship.
The sentencing comes amid a proposal by President-elect Donald Trump to end birthright citizenship in the United States, and the “Run” movement that has seen a surge in Chinese immigrants arriving at the southern American border to seek asylum in the United States.
Michael Wei Yueh Liu, a 59-year-old man from San Bernardino county, was sentenced to 41 months in U.S. federal prison over the “USA Happy Baby” business he ran with his wife, 47-year-old Jing Dong, from January 2012 to March 2015, selling “birth tourism” packages.
Liu was found guilty of one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering in September. Dong, who is now separated from Liu, is expected to be sentenced early next year.
The couple charged “tens of thousands of dollars” for the service, which included short-term housing in San Bernardino and maternity care to the mostly affluent women, who usually returned to China “within one or two months after giving birth,” a press release said.
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“Liu and Dong advised their customers on how to hide their pregnancies from the immigration authorities,” the press release said, adding that they later also helped in obtaining birth certificates.
The clients were instructed to wear baggy clothing and lie to immigration officials by saying they were visiting only for tourism and would only stay for one or two weeks. In practice, they remained in the country for months and gave birth.
“Liu and Dong or their agents also advised their customers to fly to 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,” it explained.
Liu and Dong made several millions of dollars from the scheme, federal prosecutors had said in court.
Pleas for leniency
In federal court on Monday, Liu pleaded for leniency in sentencing, with his attorney noting that he was the sole provider for his 95-year-old father and 82-year-old mother, as well as he and his estranged wife’s 13-year-old son, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Prosecutors had sought a more than five-year prison sentence for the scheme that they said deliberately aimed to deceive U.S. immigration officials. His attorney argued he should face a 26-month term.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner said he had reduced the sentence slightly to reflect Liu’s family situation but that his legal predicament was ultimately due to the “choices you make,” and not the court’s.
Liu’s lawyers had earlier argued he and Dong had not violated any U.S. laws because they had only helped the pregnant Chinese women give birth once they had arrived in America, and that other companies were responsible for helping them evade detection on their way in.
The women would have faced punishment under China’s one-child policy, which was eventually scrapped in 2015, had they been allowed to return home to give birth, Liu’s defense attorney told the court.
However, the California jury did not buy the story and found both Liu and Jong guilty of their offenses in September – almost a decade after their “maternity hotels” were raided by police in 2015 amid a wider crackdown on the lucrative “birth tourism” industry in the state.
It’s not illegal for women to visit the United States while pregnant, but it is an offense to lie to immigration officials about the reason for travel.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alex Willemyns.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.