A House task force chairman says companies helping foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth so their children obtain US citizenship could be engaging in a criminal conspiracy.
Birth Tourism Controversy
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. “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.
The 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 US citizenship.
Investigation and Controversy
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 US.
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 US immigration system and of the benevolence of the American people and the nation’s institutions.
Legislative Action
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 (US 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 programs that the American people are paying for.”
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
