Feds launch crackdown on ‘birth tourism’ schemes

By Bob Unruh

(Pixabay)

The U.S. Department of Justice, in response to the Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday to authorize the literal handout of citizenships to any baby born in the U.S., regardless of the legal or illegal status of the parents, has launched a crackdown on “birth tourism” schemes.

The decision by the high court, enabled by a single vote in the 5-4 split, makes the United States an outlier as one of the few nations on earth handing out citizenships to babies whose parents enter the nation illegally, or simply participate in a “birth tourism” scheme.

The Department of Justice, in response to the ruling, has told federal prosecutors to step up investigations and prosecutions of those schemes.

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It’s because the practice exploits the U.S. immigration system and often involves visa fraud and other federal crimes.

While President Donald Trump was blocked from using his executive order to simply deny citizenship to infants whose parents are in the country illegally, he does have the constitutional and legal power to limit access to the United States to classes of people based on the benefits and costs to the U.S.

Meanwhile, there are campaigns under way to have Congress act on the problem allowed by the Supreme Court, up to and including a constitutional amendment that would resolve the violations.

Deputy Attorney General Colin McDonald ordered federal prosecutors across the country to team up with Homeland Security and make these cases a priority, according to a report at Breitbart.

“Officials say foreign nationals are lying on visa applications or misleading border agents about why they are traveling to the U.S., all so they can give birth here and automatically secure American citizenship for their children. But prosecutors are not just looking at visa fraud anymore. McDonald orders them to go after these networks for bigger charges if the evidence is there, including money laundering, identity theft, and wire or health care fraud.”

The report noted the federal instructions cite several recent cases.

“Two years ago, Michael Wei Yueh Liu and Jing Dong were each hit with a 41-month prison sentence. They ran a California-based company called ‘USA Happy Baby Inc.,’ which helped Chinese clients secure fake visas, hide their pregnancies from border agents, and set up housing in the U.S,” the report said.

And the directive also points to a 2022 case in New York where Ibrahim Aksakal got 27 months behind bars for running a birth tourism ring that targeted Turkish speakers.

In addition to spending time behind bars, Aksakal had to hand over nearly $400,000 and pay more than a million dollars in restitution.

The report said McDonald confirmed the DOJ will continue pursuing both the people who take part in these schemes and those who organize and profit from them.

There already is campaign to crack down on people coming into the U.S. for the purposes of birth tourism. Existing federal law allows the president to make determinations about whether the U.S. would benefit, or not, by allowing in various groups.

Court precedent confirms he can make that determination and exclude some groups.

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Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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