Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered that state officials launch an investigation into a state hospital allegedly profiting from “birth tourism.”
The governor sent a letter to Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) Executive Commissioner Stephanie Muth on July 7 asking her to “immediately” begin an investigation into Mission Regional Medical Center over reports of advertised “birth packages in South Texas.”
According to Abbott’s letter, the advertisements were allegedly placed in foreign countries “in an apparent effort to profit from securing United States citizenship for their children.”
“Birth tourism is an illegal practice that exploits the extraordinary hospitality that the United States and Texas offer to millions of foreign travelers each year,” Abbott said.
Mission Regional Medical Center did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on the investigation.
The term “birth tourism” refers to a pregnant woman intentionally arranging to give birth in the United States so that the child will be deemed an American citizen upon birth. Abbott called the practice an exploitation of the hospitality of Texas and the United States.
“Thousands of foreign travelers come to the United States under false pretenses to give birth and secure citizenship for their children. HHSC must investigate the hospital, a facility it regulates, for any violations of state law and contractual obligations,” Abbott stated.
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, known as the citizenship clause, states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
The interpretation of that amendment was challenged when President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14160 stated that the amendment was not meant to be interpreted to allow citizenship to be granted universally to everyone born in the United States, and that those born here are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” if that person’s mother was unlawfully present and the individual’s father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of the person’s birth.
Should the order have been upheld, it would have excluded the children of illegal immigrants and legal temporary visitors from automatic birthright citizenship.
However, the Supreme Court ruled against that order on June 30 in Trump v. Barbara.
“A child born on American soil and subject to American law was made an American citizen,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
Some lawmakers have voiced concern about birth tourism, following the Supreme Court’s ruling, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller suggested in an interview with Fox News’s Jesse Watters that the United States should consider limiting the entry of foreign pregnant women in light of the decision.
“You have to now think very carefully about who you let into your country, even on a temporary basis, because [of] the possibility, as you said, for birth tourism,” Miller said on the day of the ruling.
Trump also called for a change, asking Congress to pass legislation that would restrict birthright citizenship.
In his letter, the Texas governor said, “Any violations will immediately be referred to the Attorney General for civil enforcement and to the appropriate District or County Attorney for criminal prosecution.”
