A Houston-area postpartum care center accused by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of operating a “birth tourism” scheme has shut down, marking what Paxton called a legal victory in the state’s effort to target alleged immigration fraud.
In April, Paxton sued De’Ai Postpartum Care Center, alleging the Houston-area business helped more than 1,000 foreign nationals enter the United States to give birth and obtain U.S. citizenship for their children. The lawsuit accused the center of violating Texas law through alleged immigration fraud and other conduct tied to the operation.
“I will do everything in my power to stop foreign nationals from unlawfully exploiting our immigration system through the scam of ‘birth tourism,’” Paxton said in a Friday news release. “This operation helped Chinese foreign nationals come to Texas to evade our laws. Now, we have shut it down.”
Paxton called De’Ai Postpartum Care Center’s closure a “legal victory.”
The company runs four clinics across the region, located in Houston, Sugar Land, Richmond and Rosenberg.
The attorney general also claimed that the business was coaching mothers on how to evade immigration laws, such as advising them to apply for visas before they become pregnant.
Paxton’s office is also investigating two other South Texas hospitals for “unlawful birth tourism schemes.”
Birthright citizenship has been at the center of a national legal fight since President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to end automatic citizenship for certain children born in the United States. Critics in Texas have argued that the policy can encourage visa fraud and birth tourism.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June against the Trump administration’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, leaving the longstanding policy in place.