Texas leaders are making it clear that the Lone Star State has no intention of becoming a destination for what they view as an abuse of America's citizenship laws.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday that Texas will move aggressively against hospitals found to be marketing childbirth services to foreign nationals seeking U.S. citizenship for their children, declaring that facilities participating in birth tourism should not expect a slap on the wrist.
"We'll shut them down. I don't want to regulate them. I just want to shut them down," Patrick said during an appearance on Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight.
His remarks come as Texas responds to the Supreme Court's recent decision in Trump v. Barbara, which struck down President Donald Trump's executive order denying automatic citizenship to certain children born in the United States to parents who are in the country unlawfully or temporarily. The Court ruled, in a 6-3 decision, that those children are citizens under the 14th Amendment.
For Patrick, that ruling did more than disappoint conservatives—it reinforced the need for states to confront what they see as an expanding birth tourism industry operating within their own borders.
The issue gained new urgency after bilingual billboards advertising flat-rate maternity "birth packages" near the Texas-Mexico border drew statewide attention. Patrick credited those advertisements with exposing a practice many Texans were unaware of.
"It woke up a sleeping giant, quite frankly, and made everyone focus on them," he said.
Gov. Greg Abbott has already directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to investigate Mission Regional Medical Center in the Rio Grande Valley after the advertisements surfaced. Abbott said the hospital appeared to be promoting birth tourism, raising serious questions about whether healthcare facilities were actively encouraging foreign nationals to travel to Texas to secure American citizenship for their children.
Hospital spokesperson Kathleen Avila said the maternity marketing campaign has been discontinued and that the hospital will cooperate fully with state investigators.
Patrick also revealed that the Texas Senate is examining what he described as a growing commercial surrogacy pipeline involving foreign nationals contracting with Texas women to carry their children. Earlier this week, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services heard testimony as part of an interim legislative study ordered by Patrick.
According to the lieutenant governor, both issues—birth tourism and foreign-national surrogacy arrangements—are now firmly on lawmakers' radar, with recommendations expected before the Legislature convenes in January.
Patrick estimated that roughly 600 of Texas' approximately 400,000 births last year involved foreign nationals paying American women to carry children on their behalf, although that figure has not been independently verified.
Much of Patrick's frustration centered on the Supreme Court's ruling itself. He sharply criticized Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett for joining the Court's liberal bloc.
"A bad decision by Justices Barrett and Roberts, a terrible decision," Patrick said. "They didn't need to go there. There was plenty of room within the Constitution to stop it."
He argued that the 14th Amendment was adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War with a specific historical purpose that bears little resemblance to today's immigration landscape.
"It was clear what we were trying to do at the time. It's also clear this is a much different country," Patrick said.
Asked whether President Trump could persuade the Court to revisit the issue, Patrick declined to speculate, noting that he is not a constitutional attorney.
For Texas Republicans, however, the broader mission remains unchanged. If Washington refuses to close loopholes that conservatives believe encourage illegal immigration and exploit America's birthright citizenship laws, state leaders appear determined to use every lawful tool available to protect the integrity of the system. As the America First movement continues pressing for stronger border security and greater accountability, Texas is signaling that it intends to lead rather than wait.
