NEW: Ken Paxton Scores Groundbreaking Legal Victory On ‘Birth Tourism’
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Friday that he had secured a legal resolution to shudder a birth tourism facility — a practice in which noncitizens travel to the U.S. with the specific purpose of birthing a child, in order for the child to gain U.S. citizenship — in the Houston area.
Under the agreement, the center will stop providing obstetric, gynecological, and immigration-related services and will no longer facilitate births or coach clients on immigration procedures.
“I secured a legal victory to shut down a Houston-area ‘birth tourism’ center that unlawfully facilitated over 1,000 births to foreign Chinese nationals,” the attorney general announced in a social media post. “I will do everything in my power to stop foreign nationals from unlawfully exploiting our immigration system through the scam of ‘birth tourism.’ This operation helped Chinese foreign nationals come to Texas to evade our laws. Now, we have shut it down,” he added.
Paxton’s office filed the underlying lawsuit back on April 29 of this year. The petition named De’Ai Postpartum Care Center and associated operators, including Lai Wan Lin-Chan. It alleged the business had operated for nearly two decades as a “birth tourism” enterprise that marketed primarily to Chinese clients through Chinese-language social media platforms and websites.
NEW: I secured a legal victory to shut down a Houston-area “birth tourism” center that unlawfully facilitated over 1,000 births to foreign Chinese nationals. pic.twitter.com/dU9BVP33Qt
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 18, 2026
The center proudly advertised that it was responsible for “1,000+ American-born babies,” according to the state’s complaint.
Investigators identified four properties used by the operation, which included: 211 Birch Hill Drive in Sugar Land, 9201 Clarewood Drive Unit 5 in Houston, 1903 Granite Field Lane in Richmond, and 7506 Summer Night Lane in Rosenberg. The state said the sites typically housed multiple families at once and facilitated as many as 20 foreign births per day.
The lawsuit further alleged that staff coached clients on how to obtain U.S. tourist visas while concealing that the primary purpose of travel was to give birth, including advice to apply for visas “before pregnancy” to reduce scrutiny. Federal policy since 2020 has restricted issuance of tourist visas when the principal purpose of travel is childbirth.
The state found that these activities violated Texas law, including provisions of the Texas Penal Code and the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Claims included deceptive marketing, coaching that allegedly facilitated concealment of travel purpose, and related conduct the attorney general’s office characterized as shielding violations of immigration law. Paxton’s office sought an injunction shutting down the business and civil penalties.
The case unfolded following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling this past June on the matter of birthright citizenship, which grants automatic citizenship to any individual born on U.S. soil, regardless of the citizenship status of either parent. The court ultimately left in place the rule that children born in the United States are generally citizens.
Federal and state officials have separately pursued cases involving alleged visa fraud or commercial facilitation of travel whose main purpose is childbirth. Paxton has also opened investigations into other Texas health-care providers over advertising that officials said could attract similar clients.
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