The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 this week that President Trump's executive order attempting to end automatic birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, confirming that the 14th Amendment means what it says: if you're born on American soil, you're a citizen. Conservatives took the L, but the Department of Justice apparently had a Plan B ready to go before the ink was dry on the opinion. As USA Journal reported, the DOJ immediately dropped a department-wide memo ordering federal prosecutors to go after birth tourism schemes with everything they've got.
Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald sent the memo to all DOJ employees on June 30, making it clear that people entering the United States under "false pretenses" to give birth and secure citizenship for their children could face criminal charges for visa fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and wire fraud. "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. The speed of the memo's release strongly suggests it was drafted in advance, like a concession speech you hope you never have to give but keep folded in your jacket pocket just in case.
The DOJ also labeled birth tourism a "national security threat," stating that "actors seeking to exploit loopholes to obtain automatic citizenship for their children pose a national security threat and will be brought to justice." So while the constitutional question may be settled for now, the feds are making it clear they have plenty of criminal statutes to work with.
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon highlighted a case from 2019 that shows exactly how industrial-scale this problem can get. A Chinese national named Dongyuan Li ran an operation called You Win USA Vacation Services, which is honestly the most on-the-nose business name in the history of immigration fraud. Li helped pregnant Chinese women travel to the U.S. to give birth, charged each customer between $40,000 and $80,000, used 20 apartments in Irvine, California, to house the mothers, and pulled in $3 million in wire transfers from China over two years. Customers were coached to lie on visa applications, claim they'd only stay two weeks when they planned to stay three months, and conceal their pregnancies from customs officials.
Li pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2019 and received a sentence of 10 months in prison, which, for a $3 million fraud operation, feels a lot like getting a parking ticket for robbing a bank.
The 5-4 split is worth noting. This was not a unanimous smackdown. Four justices were ready to uphold Trump's order, which means the legal debate over birthright citizenship is far from a closed book. But in the meantime, the DOJ appears to be sending a message: the Constitution may guarantee citizenship to anyone born here, but lying your way into the country to make that happen is still a crime, and they intend to prosecute it. Whether they follow through with sentences that actually deter people from running $80,000-per-customer baby delivery services remains to be seen.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
