DOJ orders crackdown on fraudulent birth tourism schemes after SCOTUS birthright citizenship ruling

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on June 30 directed federal prosecutors to prioritize investigations and prosecutions of fraudulent birth tourism schemes, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship and rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit it. 

In a memo to DOJ employees, Colin McDonald of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General instructed prosecutors to work with the Department of Homeland Security to target operations in which foreign nationals allegedly travel to the U.S. under false pretenses to give birth and secure automatic citizenship for their children. 

“The Department of Justice will zealously protect the sanctity of United States citizenship by investigating and prosecuting those who fraudulently exploit our immigration system,” McDonald wrote in the memo.

The directive came hours after the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling in Trump v. Barbara, struck down Trump’s executive order and ruled that the 14th Amendment guarantees automatic citizenship to nearly all children born in the U.S., even those born to parents who are unlawfully present in the country or are in the U.S. on temporary visas.

>> Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, strikes down Trump executive order <<

In a July 1 press conference, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called birth tourism a “booming industry” and argued that “it will continue, given the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday.” 

Federal law already prohibits much of the conduct involved in fraudulent birth tourism schemes. McDonald’s memo tells prosecutors to consider using other statutes to prosecute such cases, including wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and visa fraud. 

The memo highlights examples of past cases of birth tourism and calls for heightened enforcement following the court’s decision. 

In 2024, a husband and wife, Michael Wei Yueh Liu and Jing Dong, were each sentenced to 41 months in prison for operating “USA Happy Baby Inc.,” a company that charged Chinese clients tens of thousands of dollars to arrange U.S. births, according to the memo. The memo said the operation also helped customers obtain fraudulent visas, enter the U.S., and secure housing and transportation, while coaching them to hide their pregnancies from immigration authorities. 

In another example cited from 2022, Ibrahim Aksakal was sentenced to 27 months in prison for a New York-based scheme advertised on Turkish social media. The scheme involved health care and wire fraud, and Aksakal was ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution and nearly $500,000 in forfeiture. 

A separate 2020 case involved fugitive Chao “Edwin” Chen, who operated “You Win USA,” a birth tourism business that advertised that its 100-person team in China and the U.S. had served more than 500 Chinese clients. The memo said Chen charged each customer between $40,000 and $80,000 and received $3 million in international wire transfers from China in two years. Chen received a 37-month sentence. 

“As these examples make clear, birth tourism schemes exploit our immigration system and violate criminal law,” McDonald wrote. “The Department of Justice will investigate and hold accountable those who engaged in this unlawful conduct, as well as those who solicit and sell these criminal services to others.”