Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against a Houston-area \u201cbirth tourism\u201d operation known as De\u2019Ai Postpartum Care Center (\u201cCenter\u201d) for unlawfully facilitating the invasion of Chinese nationals into Texas for the sole purpose of birthing children and obtaining \u201cbirthright citizenship\u201d in a manner that violates Texas law, including the Texas Penal Code.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica is for Americans, not foreigners trying to cheat the system to claim citizenship,\u201d said Attorney General Paxton. \u201cThe Center\u2019s 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 \u2018birth tourism\u2019 schemes like this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
For nearly two decades, the Center has operated an unlawful \u201cbirth tourism\u201d business. Over that time, the Center brags that it is responsible for \u201c1,000+ American-born babies.\u201d The Center marketed birth-related services primarily to Chinese clients through popular Chinese social media platforms and websites. The company also\u00a0coaches clients on how to navigate immigration procedures and evade immigration laws when seeking visas and citizenship for themselves and their child.<\/p>\n
The coaching provided includes encouraging Chinese nationals to enter or remain in the U.S. unlawfully by concealing the fact that the primary purpose of such travel is to give birth. To make matters worse, operators of the Center were aware that U.S. visas are prohibited for birth tourism purposes. In fact, just last week, the Center noted that the federal government is \u201cstrictly\u201d policing birth tourism and recommended that women apply for visas \u201cbefore pregnancy\u201d in order to avoid detection.<\/p>\n
Investigations revealed that the\u00a0Center\u00a0operates\u00a0across at least\u00a0four\u00a0properties\u00a0and typically hosts\u00a0multiple families\u00a0at each property at one time,\u00a0facilitating\u00a0up to twenty births per\u00a0day. The locations of this Houston-area business include: 211 Birch Hill Dr, Sugar Land, Texas 77479; 9201\u00a0Clarewood\u00a0Dr, Unit 5, Houston, Texas 77036; 1903 Granite Field Ln, Richmond, Texas 77469; and 7506 Summer Night Ln, Rosenberg, Texas 77469.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Paxton is seeking injunctive relief to shut down the operation\u2014amongst other injunctive relief\u2014civil penalties, and attorneys\u2019 fees. The lawsuit aims to hold the defendants accountable for deceptive trade practices, tampering with governmental records, unlawful harboring and concealment, and other violations of Texas law. To read the lawsuit, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against a Houston-area \u201cbirth tourism\u201d operation known as De\u2019Ai Postpartum Care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-272645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}