A South Texas hospital spent years selling birth packages to foreign nationals – $3,950 to buy your child an American passport.
Now Trump is demanding the Supreme Court fix the ruling that made it all legal.
And one of his own justices just handed Republicans something that might actually work.
The Billboard That Broke the Internet
Mission Regional Medical Center in South Texas didn't hide what it was doing.
The hospital planted Spanish-language billboards near a U.S.-Mexico border crossing promoting "Birth Packages in South Texas."
Natural delivery: $3,950. C-section: $5,525.
The website was HaveMyBabyInTexas.com – with a phone number starting with "001," the country code for calling America from Mexico.
This wasn't birth tourism.
This was birth tourism with a price list.
The hospital quietly pulled the billboards and the website the moment the pictures went viral.
Then came the excuse: an "unintended misunderstanding."
Governor Greg Abbott wasn't buying it.
Abbott directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to investigate Mission Regional Medical Center for any violations of state law and instructed officials to refer findings for civil or criminal action.
"American citizenship is not for sale and Texas will not permit our healthcare system to be used as a magnet for birth tourism," Abbott wrote.
This wasn't an isolated operation.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had already sued a Houston clinic called De'Ai Postpartum Care Center, accusing it of helping more than 1,000 Chinese nationals travel to Texas specifically to give birth and claim citizenship for their children.
And Trump, watching all of it, had one message for the Supreme Court: fix this.
Trump Calls the Ruling Insane – And He's Right
The Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 decision on June 30, 2026.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, ruled that all children born on U.S. soil to parents "unlawfully or temporarily present" are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment.
Three Trump nominees – Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh – voted against him.
Trump called the ruling "absolutely insane" on Truth Social and announced he would immediately petition for a rehearing.
"Signs and Billboards are being put up all over our Southern Border, and Mexico, advertising BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, with 'Deliveries starting at $4000,'" Trump wrote.
https://twitter.com/Brooketaylortv/status/2074619356240117891?s=20
He was describing something that was literally already happening.
Under Supreme Court rules, Trump has 25 days from the ruling to file a rehearing petition – but a majority of justices would have to agree to take it up again.
The Court rarely grants rehearings on constitutional decisions of this magnitude.
Which is why what Justice Kavanaugh wrote may matter more than how he voted.
Kavanaugh Left a Door Open
Kavanaugh voted with the majority – but he didn't agree with the majority.
Where Roberts grounded the ruling in the 14th Amendment itself, Kavanaugh argued that Trump's executive order failed only because it violated an existing federal statute – not the Constitution.
That distinction is everything.
If the problem is a federal law, Congress can rewrite the law.
Kavanaugh said exactly that – writing that Congress could amend the existing citizenship statute to carve out exceptions for children born to parents here illegally or temporarily, and such a law would survive constitutional challenge.
Trump seized on it immediately.
"No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!" he posted, calling on Congress to start work on legislation right away.
House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed Republicans are actively exploring the legislative path.
https://twitter.com/KRutledgeTX/status/2074733724164293105?s=20
Senator Tom Cotton introduced the Constitutional Citizenship Clarification Act targeting exactly the statutory fix Kavanaugh outlined.
Senator Rand Paul, who introduced a constitutional amendment in April 2026, renewed his push for that approach and called on colleagues to take it seriously.
What This Is Really About
The 14th Amendment was written in 1868 to fix the monstrous injustice of Dred Scott – to guarantee that freed Black Americans could never again be stripped of citizenship.
Nobody in 1868 was thinking about HaveMyBabyInTexas.com.
Nobody was thinking about Chinese birth tourism operations housing pregnant women in Houston.
Nobody was thinking about Spanish-language billboards near the Rio Grande offering C-section packages.
Australia ended birthright citizenship in 2007. New Zealand in 2006. Ireland in 2005. France in 1993. The United Kingdom in 1983.
The United States and Canada are the last industrialized nations still handing out passports to anyone born inside their borders regardless of why their parents were there.
Trump's own appointees voted against him on the constitutional question – but Kavanaugh handed Congress a statutory weapon, and Republicans are already loading it.
The billboards in Mexico, the HaveMyBabyInTexas.com website, the Houston clinic that processed 1,000 Chinese births – these aren't edge cases.
They're the system working exactly as the Supreme Court just said it should.
Trump is asking the Court to look at what it just allowed.
He's showing them the billboards.
Sources:
- Anders Hagstrom, "Trump to Ask Supreme Court to Rehear Birthright Citizenship Case After 'Insane Decision,'" Fox News, July 9, 2026.
- "Abbott Orders Probe After Texas Hospital Advertises 'Birth Packages' in Mexico," Fox News, July 8, 2026.
- "Trump's 'Hero' Justice Offers Roadmap After Supreme Court Rejects Birthright Order," Fox News, July 1, 2026.
- "Birthright Citizenship Survives 6-3: Kavanaugh Opens a Statutory Path for Congress," Tech Times, June 30, 2026.
- "Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump's Birthright Citizenship Executive Order in Landmark Decision," Constitution Center, June 30, 2026.
- Hans von Spakovsky, "Birthright Citizenship: A Fundamental Misunderstanding of the 14th Amendment," Heritage Foundation.
- "Abbott Orders Investigation Into South Texas Hospital Over Birth Tourism Allegations," Texas Scorecard, July 8, 2026.
