Birth tourism crackdown sees 20 charged after firms help hundreds of Chinese women give birth on US soil

Women told to to list the Trump International Hotel in Honolulu as their destination

Authorities say Dongyuan Li whose business was called You Win USA coached pregnant Chinese women on how to get into the US to deliver babies who would automatically have the benefits of American citizenship (AP)

Twenty people have been charged in an unprecedented clampdown on firms that helped hundreds of Chinese women travel to America to give birth so their children can be US citizens.

Authorities say Dongyuan Li's company You Win USA, coached women on how to get into the country.

Over the course of two years, the 41-year-old generated millions through her business, with pregnant women paying between $40,000 and $80,000 each to come to California and stay in an upmarket flat and give birth, authorities said.

Ms Li, who was arrested earlier this week, is one of 20 people charged in the first federal crackdown on birth tourism businesses that prosecutors said brought hundreds of pregnant women to the US.

You Win USA employees allegedly coached the women on the lies they should write on fake applications for tourist visas and made sure the women travelled before their bellies swelled too much to conceal, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The women were told to fly first to Hawaii to blend in with the crowds of tourists and list the Trump International Hotel in Honolulu as their destination. Then they were told to board a flight to Los Angeles.

In a document titled “Strategies to Maximize the Chance of Entry” investigators found while searching You Win USA’s offices, Ms Li and Chao Chen, her business partner, outlined the details of their strategy. They told women they would improve their chances of slipping past immigration officials by putting on their tourist visa applications that they planned to stay at US president Donald Trump’s hotel.

Jing Dong, 42, and Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 53, who allegedly operated “USA Happy Baby,” were also arrested.

All three pleaded not guilty earlier this week to charges including conspiracy, visa fraud and money laundering, according to a spokesperson for the US Attorney's office in Los Angeles. Their trials will be held on 26 March.

More than a dozen others, including the operator of a third such business, also face charges but are believed to have returned to China, prosecutors said.

While it is not illegal to visit the US while pregnant, authorities said the businesses - which were raided by federal agents in 2015 - touted the benefits of having US citizen babies, who could get free public education and years later help their parents immigrate.

They also allegedly had women hide their pregnancies while seeking travel visas and lie about their plans, with one You Win USA customer telling consular officials she was going to visit a Trump hotel in Hawaii.

US authorities said the businesses also posed a national security risk since their customers, some who worked for the Chinese government, secured American citizenship for children who can move back to the US and once they are 21 and then sponsor their parents for green cards.

“I see this as a grave national security concern and vulnerability,” Mark Zito, assistant special agent-in-charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's homeland security investigations, said. “Are some of them doing it for security because the United States is more stable? Absolutely. But will those governments take advantage of this? Yes, they will.”

Derek Tung, Mr Liu's lawyer, said the growing interest among Chinese women to give birth to American babies drew attention to a phenomenon long employed by citizens of other countries.

His client had nothing to do with getting women visas from China but worked almost as a subcontractor to provide housing once they arrived, he said. “My client is merely the provider. The people who are in China are the ones in charge of everything,” he said.

Birth tourism businesses have long operated in California and other states and cater to couples from China, Russia, Nigeria and elsewhere.

In the past, operators sometimes ran into trouble with local code enforcement officials when neighbours in residential areas complained about crowding or excess rubbish, but they did not face federal scrutiny.

In 2015, federal agents in California raided roughly three dozen sites connected with the three businesses. More than 20 people were designated as material witnesses but some later fled to China and were charged with violating federal court orders, and a lawyer who helped them leave the country was convicted of obstruction of justice.

This week, a federal grand jury indicted four people who allegedly ran the birth tourism businesses until the 2015 raids, including Wen Rui Deng, 65, who is believed to be in China and accused of operating “Star Baby Care.”

Prosecutors said the business dated to at least 2010 but advertised having brought 8,000 women to the US - half of them from China - and claimed to have been running since 1999.

Ms Li and Dong's lawyers did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Additional reporting by Associated Press