A House task force chairman has escalated the crackdown on so-called “birth tourism” companies, arguing that firms facilitating foreign nationals traveling to the United States to give birth so their children obtain U.S. citizenship could be engaging in criminal conspiracy. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, told Fox News Digital that his panel has subpoenaed several businesses advertising such services. “Right now, under current law, birth tourism is illegal. You cannot come into the United States for the purpose of giving birth,” Gill said. He added that there is a “compelling legal case” that these companies, by helping clients lie on immigration or visa forms, are committing a form of criminal conspiracy.
The investigation has gained national attention after photographs circulated in July of a billboard in Mission, Texas, near the Mexican border, advertising the Women’s Center at Mission Regional Medical Center. The Spanish-language billboard promoted a now-defunct website, “Have My Baby In Texas,” and quoted prices of $3,950 for births and $5,525 for Caesarean sections. It also displayed a phone number with the international code “001,” indicating it targeted callers from outside the United States. The State of Texas has launched its own investigation into the hospital, which has since discontinued the marketing campaign. A hospital spokesperson said the campaign was “meant to highlight services available to the communities we serve” and was “never intended to encourage any unlawful activity.” The spokesperson noted that the campaign generated very little patient volume and no financial benefit to the community, which has a high uninsured-patient rate and limited maternity care.
Gill’s task force has been quietly investigating several similar operations since at least 2025, including one in Miami, and has requested records from that business and three others nationwide. He described birth tourism as an “obvious and clear abuse” of the U.S. immigration system and of the benevolence of the American people. “We are the ones who often end up picking up the tab for a lot of these services,” Gill said, arguing that birthright citizenship, established by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, was intended for former slaves and their children, not for “hordes of illegal aliens crossing our southern border and giving birth in America.” He contended that throughout U.S. history, there has been a clear understanding that certain people born within U.S. borders, such as children of an invading army, are not American citizens.
The controversy has also spurred legislative action. Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., introduced a bill that would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order deeming the illegal immigration crisis an “invasion” and cite the 1898 Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court case, which exempted from citizenship people not “bound to render obedience to the sovereign whose domains are being invaded.” Gill said he had heard about but not fully read Banks’ bill but called it a “phenomenal” plan of action. “I think that that is the type of legal clarification that could help us out quite a bit in the long run,” he said. “Remember that the goal is to make sure that our children’s birthright isn’t being taken away from us because foreigners are coming in and having babies in our country and then buying up our homes and taking American jobs and using welfare that the American people are paying for.”
Gill linked the birth tourism issue to broader concerns about illegal immigration, which he called the biggest issue from the 2024 election cycle. “In this case, seeing people cross the border so that their children can be anchored into the United States. That is such an obvious abuse of the American People economically, socially, culturally. It’s a huge risk to America’s national defense,” he said. The task force’s investigation continues, with Gill vowing to get to the bottom of what he described as a systematic exploitation of U.S. immigration laws. Meanwhile, Mission Regional Medical Center, an award-winning nonprofit hospital operating since 1954, has stated it remains committed to serving the Rio Grande Valley with integrity and full compliance with all applicable laws.
