Texas Finally Shuts Down Birth Tourism Racket That Created 1,000 Anchor Babies

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just scored a win that should’ve happened years ago. The state finally shut down De’Ai Postpartum Care Center, an operation that allegedly helped more than 1,000 Chinese nationals exploit birthright citizenship by giving birth on American soil. Three homes and one apartment in Houston. That’s all it took to run what amounts to an assembly line for anchor babies.

When the Daily Wire visited the properties earlier this year, they found exactly what you’d expect from an operation designed to game the system. One of the defendants, an Asian man wearing a “Make America Cowboy Again” shirt (the irony writes itself), identified himself as Lai Wan Lin-Chan before quickly demanding a lawyer and shooing the reporter away. That’s the kind of response you get when people know they’re caught red-handed.

The center’s social media presence tells you everything about how brazen this scheme was. Their TikTok videos actually coached pregnant women to apply for tourist visas “before pregnancy” because federal authorities “will strictly investigate birth tourism.” They knew what they were doing was wrong. They advertised it anyway. These weren’t confused immigrants trying to build a better life through honest means. This was calculated exploitation of a loophole that’s been bleeding our immigration system dry for decades.

Think about the business model here. The center promised luxury chauffeured black-car service, trips to see Texas bluebonnets in Brenham, visits to the Houston Rodeo, Christmas light shows, even the Louvre Couture exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts. They marketed birth tourism like a vacation package. Come to America, have your baby, secure citizenship for your child, and enjoy the sights while you’re at it. All for the right price, of course.

Neighbors noticed something was off. David, who wouldn’t give his last name because he’s genuinely concerned for his safety (let that sink in), said he saw multiple vehicles crammed into driveways and different people constantly going in and out. When your residential street starts looking like a parking lot for a small hotel, you know something’s wrong with the picture.

Paxton sued De’Ai Postpartum Care Center in April, accusing the operation of “exploiting birthright citizenship by unlawfully facilitating the invasion of Chinese nationals” who came here solely to give birth. The language matters. This isn’t about immigration done right. It’s about foreigners exploiting a constitutional provision that was never meant to serve as a citizenship vending machine for anyone who can afford a plane ticket and a Houston rental.

The attorney general didn’t mince words after securing the shutdown. “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 Friday. He’s right to call it a scam. That’s exactly what it is.

This case fits into the bigger fight President Trump has been waging against birthright citizenship abuse. The Supreme Court blocked his first attempt to end the practice back in June. Undeterred, Trump signed executive orders in August targeting birth tourism and certain surrogacy arrangements that exploit the system. A federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked one of those orders earlier this month, because apparently we can’t have nice things like sensible immigration enforcement.

The whole birth tourism industry operates on the assumption that American citizenship is a commodity to be purchased through clever manipulation of our laws. Foreign nationals pay tens of thousands of dollars to stay in centers like De’Ai, give birth on American soil, and walk away with a U.S. citizen baby. That child can later sponsor family members for immigration. It’s chain migration with extra steps and a hefty price tag.

We’re not talking about people fleeing persecution or seeking genuine refuge. We’re talking about wealthy foreigners treating American citizenship like a designer handbag. The fact that this operation ran long enough to facilitate over 1,000 births tells you how badly we’ve failed at enforcement. How many other centers are still operating right now in Houston, Los Angeles, New York, or anywhere else with enough foreign nationals willing to pay?

The shutdown of De’Ai Postpartum Care Center is one victory in a much larger war. Birth tourism won’t end until we fundamentally rethink birthright citizenship and close the loopholes that make these schemes profitable. Until then, every shutdown is just another whack at the mole in a game that keeps spawning new players.

Related: Arkansas Democrat Wants to Trade Five Americans for One Illegal Immigrant