Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed suit against the De’Ai Postpartum Care Center, alleging it ran an organized “birth tourism” operation that brought Chinese nationals to Texas to give birth and claim U.S. citizenship for their children. The complaint says the center ran multiple sites, coached clients on skirting immigration rules, and boasted of overseeing hundreds of American-born babies. Paxton calls the practice a national security and sovereignty problem and has framed the case as part of a larger fight over birthright citizenship and border integrity.
The lawsuit accuses the center of operating at least four locations that housed multiple families and handled many births each day. Those sites are identified in Sugar Land, Houston, Richmond, and Rosenberg. State investigators say the facilities sometimes hosted up to 20 births in a single day, a scale that raised red flags for regulators and law enforcement.
According to the filing, the proprietors bragged on Chinese social media and other channels that they had overseen the births of “1,000+ American-born babies,” to Paxton. Prosecutors say that boasting is not just marketing but evidence of a deliberate business built on exploiting U.S. citizenship rules. That claim ties directly into accusations the center coached clients on how to get around visa and citizenship processes.
Paxton has been blunt about his stance. He argued the business “unlawfully facilitat[ed] the invasion of Chinese nationals into Texas for the sole purpose of birthing children.” He also leveled criminal and civil allegations against the operators, including deceptive trade practices, tampering with governmental records, unlawful harboring and concealment, and other violations of Texas law.
From a Republican point of view this suit is about enforcing borders and protecting legal citizenship. Paxton framed the matter in stark terms: “America is for Americans, not foreigners trying to cheat the system to claim citizenship.” That message plays to voters who want stronger immigration enforcement and clear consequences for enterprises that profit from legal loopholes.
https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/2049570167475368334
The attorney general did not hold back on the rhetoric, repeating that “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.’ ” His words are positioned as both a legal argument and a political rallying cry ahead of continued national debate over jus soli citizenship.
Federal developments amplify the stakes. The issue of birthright citizenship is now before the U.S. Supreme Court after a prior administration ordered federal offices to stop recognizing automatic citizenship for children born to people here without lawful status. That dispute has national implications and will influence how state enforcement efforts are viewed and executed.
Public commentators on the right have seized on the story as proof of a growing industry built around exploiting American law. “There is a tourism industry surrounding this whole birthright citizenship. Women come here before they give birth so that they can just give birth here, and then their babies become United States citizens,” said Sara Gonzales of “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” on BlazeTV. “That’s nuts, and to [Trump’s] point, nobody else does this.”
The case also arrives in the middle of high-profile Texas politics. Paxton is running in a contested Republican primary where control of the seat and the party narrative matter. He is locked in a tight race with incumbent Sen. John Cornyn for the GOP nomination, and any high-profile enforcement action bolsters Paxton’s law-and-order credentials with the base.
Legal experts will watch whether Texas courts accept the state’s theories and whether enforcement at the state level can dovetail with federal immigration policy. For now, Paxton’s move sends a clear message: state officials will act where they see business models profiting from what they call legal loopholes, and they will press criminal and civil claims to stop it.
