Ken Paxton sued a Houston operation and found rows of bassinets – Chinese babies, fresh American citizens, their mothers already booked on flights home.
That image is what the Supreme Court just blessed when it killed Trump's executive order last month.
And Texas State Representative Brian Harrison just found the one thing the Supreme Court can't touch.
Texas Birth Certificates and Birthright Citizenship Are Not the Same Thing
The Supreme Court ruled on citizenship. It said nothing about paperwork.
Brian Harrison – Republican state rep from Midlothian – went on Fox News and laid out what every Texas official should have been saying for years.
"There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that requires the State of Texas to facilitate illegal immigration by issuing birth certificates to the children of illegal aliens and of noncitizens."
He's right. Birth certificates are not federal documents. Texas Health and Human Services issues them under state authority, funded by Texas taxpayers.
The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship. It does not require Texas to hand you the paperwork proving it.
Harrison called out the absurdity of the current situation: Texas isn't just issuing those documents. The state is advertising on its taxpayer-funded website exactly which foreign documents it will accept to get one.
"That is not only NOT fighting birth tourism," Harrison said. "That is actually incentivizing birth tourism and that is a betrayal of the 30 million Texans who call this state home."
Greg Abbott Can Stop Birth Tourism in Texas Without a Special Session
No special session required. Abbott's political appointee at Texas HHS could stop issuing birth certificates to illegal aliens tomorrow morning with a phone call.
Harrison is calling for that, plus a special session to make birth tourism a state-level felony – with criminal penalties for operating or participating in a birth tourism enterprise.
The scope of what's happening in Texas makes this urgent.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's lawsuit against De'Ai Postpartum Care Center exposed a Houston-area operation that delivered more than 1,000 babies for Chinese nationals across four residential properties – marketing its services through WeChat and Chinese social media for nearly two decades.
The business walked clients through obtaining tourist visas before pregnancy to dodge federal scrutiny, then managed the entire process after they landed.
Up to 20 births per day at a single location. In a house that looks like any other house on the street.
After the Supreme Court's ruling in Trump v. Barbara, operations like that are now bulletproofed by federal constitutional law. The only remaining question is what states can do about it – and Harrison just answered it.
Brian Harrison Has a Plan to End Birth Tourism Illegal Aliens Are Using Right Now
Justice Alito said in his dissent that the majority's ruling validates the practice of birth tourism – women who come here solely to give birth and then return home. Chief Justice Roberts and four colleagues disagreed.
That debate is over. The court ruled 6–3 on June 30.
What isn't over is the state-level response. Harrison's birth certificate strategy is surgical. What he found is a gap the Supreme Court never closed: states control vital records, and nothing in the Constitution forces a state to generate documentation that turbocharges the very loophole Congress has refused to fix.
Kavanaugh said it in his concurrence: Congress could enact legislation to address birth tourism. It hasn't.
Abbott can't fix Congress. He can pick up the phone.
Harrison has done the legal work and is publicly demanding Abbott act. Every day the governor waits is another day Texas taxpayers fund the paperwork that turns birth tourism into a going concern.
Sources:
- "Texas Republicans Want the State to Deny Birth Certificates for Children of Non-Citizens," Fox 7 Austin, July 2026.
- "Attorney General Paxton Sues Houston-Area 'Birth Tourism' Center," Office of the Texas Attorney General, April 29, 2026.
- "After Birthright Citizenship Ruling, Texas Republicans Scrutinize Surrogacy and Birth Tourism," Border Report/Nexstar, July 2026.
- "Gov. Abbott Calls for Probe into Alleged 'Birth Tourism' Services at Texas Hospital," Christian Post, July 9, 2026.
- Amy Howe, "Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump's Order Ending Birthright Citizenship," SCOTUSblog, June 30, 2026.