Birth tourism crackdown expands as House chairman raises criminal conspiracy case
A House task force chairman says companies helping foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth so their children obtain U.S. citizenship could be engaging in a criminal conspiracy.
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, told Fox News Digital that his panel has subpoenaed several so-called "birth tourism companies" as it investigates firms advertising services to help foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth.
"Right now, under current law, birth tourism is illegal. You cannot come into the United States for the purpose of giving birth," Gill said.
TRUMP BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FIGHT COMES ROARING BACK WITH 'INVADERS' PLAY AFTER KAVANAUGH ROADMAP
"And I believe that there's a compelling legal case to be made that these businesses that are facilitating this process -- facilitating somebody coming into the United States to give birth -- lying on their immigration forms or on their visa forms -- are engaging in a form of criminal conspiracy, and that's what we're going to get to the bottom of," Gill said.
State Department regulations prohibit foreign nationals from obtaining visitor visas when consular officers determine that their primary purpose is traveling to the United States to give birth so their child obtains U.S. citizenship.
While Gill’s task force has been quietly looking into several companies since at least 2025, the national scrutiny intensified after photographs circulated in July of a billboard advertising for the Women’s Center at Mission Regional Medical Center in Mission, Texas – a stone’s throw from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
The Spanish-language billboard advertised a now-defunct "Have My Baby In Texas" website, and quoted Mission Regional providing births for $3,950 and Caesarean Sections for $5,525. It also displayed a phone number that included "001" – the country code required for international calls to the U.S.
Gill and others have since issued responses to the controversy, with the State of Texas also launching its own investigation of the hospital.
"I think it's astounding," Gill said. His task force is investigating several similar operations, including one in Miami, and has requested records from that business and three others nationwide.
Gill said birth tourism is an "obvious and clear abuse" of the U.S. immigration system and of the benevolence of the American people and the nation’s institutions.
TRUMP BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FIGHT COMES ROARING BACK WITH ‘INVADERS’ PLAY AFTER KAVANAUGH ROADMAP
"We are the ones who often end up picking up the tab for a lot of these services," he said, arguing that birthright citizenship was intended for former slaves and their children when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868.
"It had nothing to do with hordes of illegal aliens crossing our southern border and giving birth in America and using those babies to anchor illegal aliens into our country. And for all of America's history, we've always had a very clear understanding that there are certain people who are born within America's boundaries, within America borders, who are not American citizens, the children of an invading army."
The latter point was captured by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and put into legislation Fox News Digital exclusively broke earlier in the week.
That proposal would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order deeming the illegal immigration crisis an "invasion" and cite the 1898 Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court case’s exemption of citizenship for people not "bound to render obedience to the sovereign (U.S. government) whose domains are being invaded."
Gill said he had heard about but not fully read Banks’ bill – but underlined he believes it to be a "phenomenal" plan of action.
"I think that that is the type of legal clarification that could help us out quite a bit in the long run," he said.
"Remember that the goal is to make sure that our children's birthright isn't being taken away from us because foreigners are coming in and having babies in our country and then buying up our homes and taking American jobs and using welfare that the American people are paying for."
Gill said the crisis touches on the biggest issue from the 2024 election cycle, which he considered to be the illegal immigration crisis writ-large.
"In this case; seeing people cross the border so that their children can be anchored into the United States. That is such an obvious abuse of the American People economically, socially, culturally. It's a huge risk to America's national defense."
A Mission Regional spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday the hospital remains an "award-winning, nonprofit" infirmary that has been operating as such since 1954.
"We recognize that a very limited marketing campaign may have caused unintended misunderstanding and was immediately discontinued. The campaign was meant to highlight services available to the communities we serve and was never intended to encourage any unlawful activity and Mission Regional Medical Center remains committed to serving the Rio Grande Valley with integrity, compassion, transparency, and full compliance with all applicable laws," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the billboard campaign returned very little patient volume and no financial benefit to a community they said has a high uninsured-patient rate and limited maternity care.
"The hospital does not support or facilitate unlawful activity and has never operated its obstetric program with the intent of attracting individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States, promoting birth tourism, or encouraging travel to the United States for the purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child," the spokesperson added.
Citing a separate order from Austin, the spokesperson said 99% of all emergency and inpatient patients who responded to a state-required survey were legal U.S. residents or citizens.
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"Birth tourism should never be big business in the United States. This tactic exploits U.S. immigration law, and those who willfully mispresent their intentions to temporarily come to the U.S. are breaking the law," Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the greater Oversight Committee said in May.
In a concurrence to the Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling striking down Trump’s birthright citizenship order, Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated that Congress could still act through legislation. Gill, Banks and other lawmakers have said they plan to pursue that route as they seek to restrict birthright citizenship.