Maybe you get your “news” from skews papers like Sulzberger’s Slimes New York Times and Bezos’ Bozos Washington Post.  Or maybe you get it from once-upon-a-time credible broadcast skews networks including NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, NPR.  Of if you’re really into fictional skews, you might get it from the make-it-up-as-we-go-along clown cars at CNN and MSNBC.

If those are where you get your daily dose of journo-fiction, then you may have missed any news derived from a January 31, 2019, US Department of Justice press release entitled Federal Prosecutors Unseal Indictments Naming 19 People Linked to Chinese ‘Birth Tourism’ Schemes that Helped Thousands of Aliens Give Birth in U.S. to Secure Birthright Citizenship for Their Children.

That press release reported indictments connected to undercover operations concluded in 2015 and reported in a March 3, 2015, article headlined California Apartments Raided in Federal Investigation of Chinese ‘Birth Tourism’.   In a related action, the DoJ reported in a February 9, 2016, press release that, “An Irvine-based immigration attorney [Ken Zhiyi Liang, 39, of Irvine] has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for obstructing justice in relation to a scheme in which he agreed to help a Chinese national flee from the United States after the woman had been designated as a ‘material witness’ in a criminal investigation into ‘birthing houses’ operating in Southern California.”

Here are some of the salient points from the January 31, 2019, DoJ press release:

• “The birth tourism operations not only committed widespread immigration fraud and engaged in international money laundering, they also defrauded property owners when leasing the apartments and houses used in their birth tourism schemes.”   So much for the argument that these schemes don’t really harm anyone.
• “The indictments describe birth tourism schemes in which foreign nationals, mostly from China, applied for visitor visas to come to the United States and lied about the length of their trips, where they would stay, and the purposes of their trips – which were to come to the U.S. for three months to give birth so their children would receive U.S. birthright citizenship.”
• “…the operators of the schemes […] coached their Chinese customers how to pass the U.S. Consulate interview in China by falsely stating that they were going to stay in the U.S. for only two weeks.”
•  “Their clients were also coached to trick U.S. Customs at ports of entry by wearing loose clothing that would conceal their pregnancies.”
• “…the customers were directed to fly to Hawaii from China – instead of directly to Los Angeles – because it was easier to get through U.S. Customs in Hawaii.”  Maybe CBP should be talking with Hawaii’s elected Senators and Representatives including Senators Crazy Mazie Hi-ho-hi-ho and Brian Sch_tz and Representatives Ed Case and Tulsi “I Wanna Be President!” Gabbard.
• “…many of the Chinese birth tourism customers failed to pay all of the medical costs associated with their hospital births, and the debts were referred to collection.”  Thus sticking US citizens with the uncollected costs.
• “…all three businesses touted the benefits of giving birth in the U.S., rather than in China, with claims of the U.S. having ‘the most attractive nationality’; ‘better air’ and less pollution; ‘priority for jobs in U.S. government’; superior educational resources, including ‘free education from junior high school to public high school’; a more stable political situation; and the potential to ‘receive your senior supplement benefits when you are living overseas.’ ”  Of course, none of those benefits would ever be offered by US nationals to induce people from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to come here illegally via Mexico.  No, of course not …
• The indictment naming Dongyuan Li (李冬媛), 41, of Irvine “…details communications in which Li referred to U.S. immigration authorities as ‘the foreigners’ and also discussed whether to refund a downpayment because, once the customer found out ‘the baby is a girl, her husband arranged abortion for her.’ ”  Given New York’s and California’s affinity for very late-term abortions, inquiring minds might wonder if some of those indicted helped steer the Chinese customers to friendly US abortion providers who might not be especially particular if the baby was born alive and then “aborted?”

Very significantly, the January 31, 2019, DoJ press release states, “The 17 cases unsealed today contain the first-ever federal criminal charges brought against operators and customers of birth tourism businesses.”  [emphasis mine]  To get some insight into why the Obama-Biden-Clinton and Clinton-Gore administrations may not have been inclined to prosecute these crimes, see my August 13, 2015, OpenCdA post entitled The Clinton Family Trie (Huang , Hsia, and Riady, Too).