Texas AG sues 'birth tourism' center marketed to Chinese citizens

HOUSTON (CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused a Houston-area medical center on Wednesday of unlawfully helping Chinese citizens secure U.S. citizenship for their children.

In the suit filed in Fort Bend County, Paxton claims that De’ai Postpartum Care Center has participated in “birth tourism” — a process the attorney general characterizes as expectant mothers attaining tourist visas to travel to countries to obtain birthright citizenship for their children — for nearly two decades.

“America is for Americans, not foreigners trying to cheat the system to claim citizenship,” Paxton said in a statement. “The center’s scheme not only facilitated an invasion of Texas, but it also involved shielding and facilitating violations of immigration law. Birthright citizenship is a scam that threatens national security, and I will do everything in my power to stop unlawful “birth tourism” schemes like this one.”

Paxton claims that since 2008, the company has operated a full-service luxury birth tourism business from a residential property in Fort Bend County, which has since expanded to four residential properties.

He writes that their services are marketed through the company’s website, social media, the private messaging app WeChat, and an online forum dedicated to birth tourism to the United States. The company’s website and social media platforms reportedly boastfully claim that they have facilitated the births of more than 1,000 American-born babies to Chinese citizens.

“Tourist visas cannot be issued for this purpose,” Paxton writes in the suit. “This is an unlawful scheme that perpetuates fraud on the government and violates Texas law.”

The attorney general accuses the center of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. He also brings brings claims of tampering with governmental record and unlawful concealment and harboring Chinese nationals, along with a public nuisance claim over colluding on criminal activity.

The Trump administration has explicitly denied travel to the United States for the purposes of giving birth since January 2020, and has attempted to revoke birthright citizenship, a battle now in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Paxton claims the company’s operators are well aware of the illegality of their business.

The attorney general cited a social media post that he says encouraged Chinese women to apply for their tourist visas before their pregnancies because the U.S. government is closely monitoring birth tourism, and warned women it may result in a tourist visa denial if applying after becoming pregnant. Paxton also accuses the center of instructing clients on how to bypass immigration procedures to obtain visas and citizenship for themselves and their children.

“Defendants consult clients regarding the travel process, develop personalized immigration strategies, and coach clients on how to navigate immigration procedures and minimize legal and immigration scrutiny,” Paxton writes.

Additionally, the attorney general questions the credentials of the operators — according to Paxton, no search results for either of the two operators’ names can be found in the Texas Board of Nursing License Verification Portal and the Texas Medical Board’s online database. The company’s website claims to be affiliated with licensed physicians.

One operator of the company declined to comment on the pending litigation, and another operator did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Paxton is seeking an injunction to shut down the company and its operations, along with civil penalties up to $10,000 for each violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.