American Citizenship Is Not for Sale

Talena Reese, Pexels

Texas is cracking down on a South Texas hospital accused of turning American citizenship into a marketing pitch. Governor Greg Abbott has ordered a state investigation into Mission Regional Medical Center after it admitted running billboards in Mexico that advertised childbirth services to expectant mothers across the border. The move lands in the middle of a heated national debate over birthright citizenship and birth tourism.

Abbott’s message was blunt. He declared that American citizenship is not for sale and that Texas would not allow its hospitals to become a magnet for birth tourism. The billboards, he said, appeared aimed at foreign nationals hoping to secure citizenship for their children by giving birth on U.S. soil.

“Birth Packages” Marketed Across the Border

The advertising was hard to miss. According to reporting the hospital confirmed, the billboards started at $3,950 for a natural delivery and $5,525 for a cesarean section, and pointed viewers to a website called havemybabyinTEXAS.com. The site has since been taken offline.

The signs were written in Spanish and aimed squarely at families living in Mexico. The Spanish-language billboards encouraged expectant mothers to give birth in Texas and steered them toward the hospital’s website. They even listed a phone number beginning with “001,” the country code used to dial the United States from Mexico.

Hospital officials said the campaign began in 2021 and involved two billboards within about five miles of the facility near a border crossing. Mission Regional sits in the Rio Grande Valley, only a short drive from a major Border Patrol hub in McAllen, which made the placement especially pointed. The signs and the website were removed Monday after photos of them spread widely on social media. President Trump weighed in soon after, calling the advertisement a “scam” in a post that drew even more attention to the story.

The Governor Steps In

Abbott acted within days. In a letter dated July 7, he directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and its executive commissioner, Stephanie Muth, to investigate whether the hospital broke state law or violated its contracts with the state. He ordered that any violations be referred to the Texas Attorney General for civil enforcement and to local prosecutors for possible criminal charges.

The governor did not soften his description of the practice itself. He called birth tourism an illegal scheme that exploits the hospitality the United States extends to millions of foreign visitors each year. Thousands, he said, come under false pretenses simply to give birth and claim citizenship for their children.

Abbott also instructed regulators to pursue administrative penalties if the hospital is found to have broken the rules. And he pledged to work with the Texas Legislature in its next session to strengthen state law and stamp out birth tourism for good.

The Hospital’s Defense

Mission Regional Medical Center pushed back on the accusation. In a statement, the hospital said it provides compassionate care and shares information about its services much like hospitals everywhere, insisting it does not support or facilitate any unlawful activity and works to follow all applicable laws.

The hospital said the marketing materials were pulled because of what it described as an unintended misunderstanding. It added that it intends to cooperate openly with state and local officials while keeping its focus on the patients it serves.

Critics were not persuaded. They pointed to the website’s name and its plain appeal to mothers living outside the country, arguing that a domain like havemybabyinTEXAS.com is difficult to read as anything but an invitation to birth tourism.

A Pattern Texas Is Fighting

The hospital is not the first target in the state’s broader push against the practice. Earlier this year, Texas sued a Houston operation accused of helping more than 1,000 Chinese nationals travel to the state to give birth so their children could obtain U.S. citizenship. The lawsuit alleged the business coached clients on visas and immigration paperwork.

State lawmakers want to go even further. One Texas representative has publicly urged Abbott to call a special session to make birth tourism a crime, expand enforcement authority, and stop issuing birth certificates to the children of illegal immigrants.

The pressure has intensified since the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld birthright citizenship, striking down Trump’s executive order that sought to limit it. For many on the right, the ruling left the door wide open, and the Texas billboards became a vivid example of exactly what they feared.

Citizenship Is Not for Sale

The billboards struck a nerve with Americans across the political spectrum because they reduced something meant to be priceless to a simple price tag. Citizenship has long been treated as a shared trust, tied to belonging, duty, and the rule of law, not a product to be sold to whoever can pay the fee. When the birth of a child becomes a cross-border transaction, it cheapens a status that millions of immigrants have waited years and followed the law to earn, and it undercuts the fairness every citizen has a stake in protecting.

The controversy also feeds directly into the larger debate Million Voices has followed over the future of birthright citizenship. If simply being born on American soil guarantees citizenship no matter the circumstances, critics argue, then the incentive to game the system will only grow. That is the very loophole Texas officials now say they are determined to close.

Whether the investigation ends in penalties or new laws, the episode has already sharpened a national conversation. It has put a human face on an abstract legal fight, showing how the meaning of citizenship plays out in border towns and delivery rooms far from Washington. And it has left Texas leaders returning again and again to a single line: American citizenship is not for sale. For a state that has spent years fighting to secure its border, the fight over a few billboards has become a fight over what that citizenship is worth.

As believers, we are called to pray for our leaders and our nation. Pray for wisdom for those making these decisions, and for safety and dignity for all people affected by them.

That’s where we come in.

Prayer is at the heart of how Million Voices connects faith with civic life. Our Prayer Guide: Pray for Our Government Officials By Name is a free resource designed to help individuals, families, and small groups lift up the men and women who serve in public office—across every level of government and regardless of party.

Rooted in the scriptural call to pray “for kings and all those in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1–2), the guide offers a thoughtful framework for interceding on behalf of our leaders: for wisdom in their decisions, integrity in their conduct, protection for them and their families, and a heart for serving the common good.

Whether you’re looking to deepen your personal prayer life or to gather others in praying for our nation, this guide is a meaningful place to start. Download it here: https://millionvoices.org/mv-prayer-guide-pray-for-government-officials/

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