California couple faces up to 20 years for helping Chinese women give birth in US

A jury convicted a California couple on Friday, Sept. 13, of running a tourism business to help pregnant Chinese women give birth to babies in the United States who would be granted automatic American citizenship. Michael Liu and Phoebe Dong were found guilty of 10 counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy.

The case against the now-separate couple comes nearly a decade after more than a dozen homes were searched across Southern California as part of a crackdown by authorities on birth tourism operators.

Investigators said that the pair encouraged pregnant women to lie on visa documents and hide their pregnancies, suggesting that clients wear loose fitting clothing and not "waddle like a penguin" in order to hide pregnancies.

The couple ran the company known as "USA Happy Baby," offering services to hundreds of women from 2012-2015. Tourists reportedly paid as much as $40,000 for services, which included housing.

Liu and Dong were charged in 2019 with more than a dozen other defendants, including a woman who pleaded guilty to running a company known as "You Win USA," she was sentence to 10 months in prison.

Meanwhile, Liu and Dong are set to be sentenced on Dec. 9 and face up to 20 years in prison .

The defense argued that birth tourism is not a crime, and the pair helped women who would have faced punishment under China's former one-child policy. However, prosecutors said visiting while pregnant is not a crime, but deceiving immigration authorities is a crime.

Under the 14th Amendment the United States offers birthright citizenship and parents can apply to become citizens once the child turns 21 years of age .

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