Chinese national pleads guilty to running 'birth tourism' in US

A Chinese national has pleaded guilty to the charges of running a California-based "birth tourism" business that catered to wealthy pregnant clients and Chinese government officials, charging them tens of thousands of dollars to help them give birth in the US so their children would get American citizenship, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.

Dongyuan Li, 41, of Irvine in California, who was one of 19 defendants named in a series of indictments unsealed earlier this year, is first of the charged operators of birth tourism businesses to plead guilty. The remaining defendants either are pending trial or are fugitives.

In her guilty plea, Li admitted that, from 2013 until March 2015, she operated a birth tourism company in Irvine and in China called You Win USA Vacation Services Corp. She faces a 15 years of imprisonment.

You Win would assist pregnant foreign nationals typically from China to travel to and remain in the US to give birth so their children would receive birthright US citizenship, according to the plea agreement.

According to a January 2019 federal grand jury indictment against Li, You Win advertised that it had served more than 500 Chinese birth tourism customers seeking US birthright citizenship for their children.

The indictment details that Li used 20 apartments in Irvine, charged each customer between USD 40,000 and USD 80,000, and she received USD 3 million in international wire transfers from China in two years.

Some You Win customers coached by the company made false statements on their visa applications and to US immigration officials, Li's plea agreement states.

Li also admitted that the customers were advised on how to pass the US Consulate interview in China, including by falsely stating that they were going to stay in the United States for only two weeks, when in reality, they planned to stay for up to three months to give birth.

In her guilty plea, Li admitted that her customers bypassed US immigration controls by booking two flights the first from China to Hawaii and the second from Hawaii to Los Angeles International Airport because they thought it would be easier to clear US Customs through Hawaii.

Li's customers also were coached how to trick US Customs at ports of entry by concealing their pregnancies, according to the plea agreement.

In October 2013, Li made a USD 30,965 rent payment for Irvine apartments used in her birth tourism operation, and in November 2013, she made a USD 30,321 rent payment for those apartments, the plea agreement states.

As part of her plea agreement, Li agreed to forfeit more than USD 850,000, a Murrieta residence worth more than USD 500,000, as well as several Mercedes-Benz vehicles.