Woman gets more than 3-year prison term for helping pregnant Chinese women get to US

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Woman gets more than 3-year prison term for helping pregnant ******** women get to US

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California woman was sentenced Monday to more than 3 years in prison in a long-running case over a business that helped pregnant ******** women travel to the United States to deliver babies who automatically became American citizens.

U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner gave Phoebe ***** a 41-month sentence and ordered her immediately taken into custody from his federal court in Los Angeles. ***** and her husband were

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in September of conspiracy and money laundering through their company,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

The sentencing came as

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

has been thrust into the spotlight in the United States with the return of President Donald Trump to the White House. Since taking office, Trump issued an

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

to narrow the definition of birthright citizenship, a move quickly

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

by a federal judge who called it “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inbox

See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.

***** and her husband, Michael Liu, were among more than a dozen people charged in an Obama-era

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

on so-called “birth tourism” schemes that helped ******** women hide their pregnancies while traveling to the United States to give birth. Such businesses have long operated in various states catering to people from China, Russia, Nigeria and elsewhere.

Under the 14th Amendment, any child born in the United States is an American citizen. Many have seen these trips as a way to help their children secure a U.S. college education and a better future — especially since the tourists themselves can apply for permanent residency once the children turn 21.

During her sentencing hearing, ***** wiped away tears as she recalled growing up without siblings due to China’s strict “

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

” policy and told the court that the ******** government forced her mother to have an abortion. Moving to the United States was challenging, she said, but ***** grew hopeful after having children of her own and saw she could help ******** women who want to have additional children in California.

“I don’t want to lose my kids,” she told the court. “I hope you can give me fair judgment. I will take all my responsibility.”

Federal prosecutors sought a more than five year sentence for ***** and argued that she and Liu helped more than 100 pregnant ******** women travel to the United States. They said the pair worked with others to coach women on how to trick customs officials by flying into airports believed to be more lax while wearing loose-fitting clothing to hide their pregnancies.

“For tens of thousands of dollars each, defendant helped her numerous customers deceive U.S. authorities and buy U.S. citizenship for their children,” prosecutors said in court filings. They declined to comment after the sentencing.

In December, Liu was also

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

to 41 months in prison. *****’s lawyer, John McNicholas, asked that she be allowed to serve her term after Liu completes his sentence because of their three children. The youngest is 13.

Federal prosecutor Kevin Fu agreed to the delay but Klausner refused and had her taken into custody immediately. ***** removed a necklace and gave it to a family member before she was led away.

The USA Happy Baby case was part of a broader probe into businesses that helped ******** women travel to give birth in California. The operator of another business is believed to have fled to China, McNicholas wrote in court filings, while another was sentenced in 2019 to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and visa fraud for running the company known as “

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.”

McNicholas said he feels ***** was given a much longer sentence because the government and Klausner blame her for the babies that were born U.S. citizens. That, he said, is unrelated to the allegations that she and Liu helped women travel to the United States to give birth.

“Our position was these children are born in America. They’re citizens,” McNicholas said, adding that ***** will appeal. “Implicitly, he’s saying being born here is not enough.”

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Woman #3year #prison #term #helping #pregnant #******** #women

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up