Trump Plans Assault On Birth Tourism After Letdown At SCOTUS

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration is ramping up its crackdown on birth tourism in the United States.

Colin McDonald, who leads the newly formed Fraud Division at the Department of Justice, informed employees on Tuesday that the DOJ will target those who “exploit our immigration system and violate criminal law,” according to a memorandum on “fraudulent birth tourism schemes” obtained by The Daily Wire.

“I am directing all United States Attorneys and the Criminal Division to work with the Department of Homeland Security to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of birth tourism schemes,” McDonald ordered.

The memo comes on the heels of a momentous Supreme Court decision that protects the practice of “birth tourism,” often used by wealthy Chinese nationals to travel to the United States to give birth to their children.

The DOJ memo lays out how the American citizenship system is exploited every year by “thousands of foreigners” who come to the United States under “false pretenses to give birth and secure citizenship for their child.”

McDonald cites an example from 2024, in which Michael Wei Yueh Liu and Jing Dong, a husband and wife, were sentenced to 41 months in prison for operating a birth tourism scheme using a business called “USA Happy Baby Inc.”

(Photo by Ken Cedeno / AFP via Getty Images)

That business charged Chinese clients “tens of thousands of dollars” for helping women give birth in the United States.

“Liu and Dong assisted customers with obtaining fraudulent visas to enter the United States, and provided customs entry guidance, housing, and transportation in the United States,” McDonald explained. “As part of the scheme, Liu and Dong coached their customers on how to hide their pregnancies from immigration authorities.”

Another 2022 scheme involved Ibrahim Aksakal, who was sentenced to 27 months in prison for “conspiring to commit health care and wire fraud” related to a birth tourism scheme that he operated in New York. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,039,723.63, and forfeiture in the amount of $397,500.

“Aksakal and his co-conspirators advertised a birth tourism scheme on two Turkish-language social media pages,” the memo states. “As part of the scheme, Aksakal and his co-conspirators instructed the women to conceal their pregnancies from immigration authorities.”

A third scheme, this one in 2020, involved a fugitive named Chao “Edwin” Chen who was sentenced to 37 months in prison for his role in a “large-scale birth tourism scheme.”

This business went under the name “You Win USA” and advertised that it had a 100-person team in China and the United States and had served more than 500 Chinese birth-tourism customers, the memo stated.

“Chen, who helped coach his customers to misrepresent the true
intentions of their visits to United States at ports of entry, charged each customer between $40,000 to $80,000,” McDonald’s memo explained. “Chen received $3 million in international wire transfers from China in just two years.”

DOJ prosecutes many of these cases as visa fraud under 18 USC § 1546, but McDonald’s memo encourages prosecutors to consider whether other federal statutes have been violated.

That could include “Wire Fraud and Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud,” “Money Laundering and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering,” “Unlawful Use of Means of Identification,” “Aggravated Identity Theft,” and “Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud.”

President Trump called on Congress to take legislative action on Tuesday in light of the Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship.

“The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”

He added in a post later on Tuesday: “I would like to congratulate President Xi, and the Great Country of China, on their massive Birthright Citizenship WIN!”