A Republican candidate for governor of Maine once operated a chain of birthing clinics in Texas that catered heavily to pregnant women from Mexico, a business model that critics say facilitated birth tourism and the creation of so-called "anchor babies." Now that candidate, Elise Stefanik ally and Trump endorsement seeker Heather Somers, faces pointed questions about whether her professional past squares with the immigration platform she campaigns on.
Fox News reported that Somers co-founded and helped run BabyMaternity Inc., a company that operated birthing centers in Laredo, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border. The clinics opened in the early 2000s and offered prenatal and delivery services. A significant share of the clientele were Mexican nationals who crossed the border to give birth on American soil, according to the Fox News report.
BabyMaternity Inc. operated at least two facilities in Laredo. The company marketed its services to expectant mothers in Mexico, Fox News reported. Women would cross the border, often on tourist visas, to deliver their babies in the United States. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, children born on U.S. soil are automatically granted American citizenship, regardless of their parents' immigration status.
Somers served as a managing member and registered agent for the company, according to Texas business filings reviewed by Fox News. The company was active during a period when birth tourism along the southern border drew increasing scrutiny from federal authorities and immigration hawks.
Birthright citizenship has become one of the sharpest flashpoints in the national immigration debate. President Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office in January 2025 that sought to limit automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, though that order faces ongoing legal challenges. The broader fight over who profits from the current system, and who enables it, has intensified as the Trump administration pursues aggressive fraud crackdowns across multiple federal agencies.
Somers is now running for governor of Maine in 2026. She has positioned herself as a strong conservative and has actively courted an endorsement from President Trump. She previously served as a state senator in Connecticut and later moved to Maine, where she entered the gubernatorial race.
Her campaign has emphasized border security, law enforcement, and alignment with the Trump agenda. Fox News reported that Somers has touted her conservative credentials on immigration, making the revelation about her birthing clinic business a potential liability in a competitive Republican primary.
Somers has ties to prominent Republican figures. She has received support from former Rep. Elise Stefanik, now the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. That connection has helped raise her profile among GOP donors and grassroots activists in Maine, Fox News reported.
Fox News reached out to the Somers campaign for comment. The campaign did not deny her involvement with BabyMaternity Inc. but sought to reframe the narrative. A spokesperson told Fox News that Somers "provided healthcare services to women" and that the clinics operated legally.
The spokesperson added that Somers "has always supported legal immigration and secure borders." The campaign did not address whether the clinics specifically marketed to Mexican nationals or whether the business model depended on birth tourism traffic.
Investigators and federal prosecutors have targeted birth tourism operations in Texas and California in recent years, though no charges have been publicly linked to BabyMaternity Inc. or to Somers personally. The distinction matters: running a birthing clinic that serves foreign nationals is not illegal, but organized schemes to bring pregnant women into the country specifically to obtain citizenship for their children have drawn federal prosecution in other cases.
The Maine GOP gubernatorial primary is shaping up as a crowded contest. Multiple candidates are jockeying for Trump's backing, which in recent cycles has functioned as a decisive advantage in Republican primaries. Somers' opponents may now seize on the birthing clinic story to question her credibility on immigration.
In Republican primaries across the country, candidates have faced intense scrutiny over any perceived inconsistency between their campaign rhetoric and their professional histories. The political environment rewards alignment with Trump on border enforcement, and any gap between words and record can prove fatal in a primary. Similar dynamics have played out in recent GOP legal and political battles at the state level, where loyalty to the party's core commitments is tested under pressure.
Fox News reported that rival campaigns in Maine have already begun circulating details about Somers' Texas business dealings. No candidate has yet made a formal public attack, but operatives familiar with the race told Fox News that the birthing clinic issue is expected to surface in debates and advertising.
The federal government has taken an increasingly hard line on birth tourism. In 2019, federal prosecutors in California charged operators of several "maternity hotels" that housed Chinese nationals who traveled to the U.S. to give birth. Those cases involved allegations of visa fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy.
Along the Texas-Mexico border, the dynamic is different but draws similar criticism. Women crossing from Mexico often hold valid border crossing cards or tourist visas. The legal gray area makes enforcement complicated. Critics argue that businesses that actively recruit foreign mothers exploit a constitutional provision never intended to support commercial birth tourism.
No federal agency has publicly accused BabyMaternity Inc. of wrongdoing. Somers has not been charged with any crime related to the clinics. But the political optics for a Republican candidate seeking Trump's endorsement are difficult to manage, particularly when the current administration has made birthright citizenship a signature issue. The broader pattern of Trump-aligned officials pushing accountability through federal referrals and investigations has raised the stakes for anyone in the GOP orbit whose record invites questions.
Several key questions remain unresolved. Authorities have not publicly confirmed how many births took place at BabyMaternity Inc.'s facilities or what percentage of patients were foreign nationals. The company's financial records, including revenue sources and any government reimbursements, have not been made public.
Investigators have not said whether BabyMaternity Inc. ever drew scrutiny from federal immigration or healthcare fraud investigators. Somers' campaign has not disclosed when she ended her involvement with the company or whether she profited directly from the birth tourism trade.
The timeline also raises questions. Somers moved from the Texas border region to New England, shifted into politics, and built a brand centered on conservative values and border security. Whether voters will view her clinic work as legitimate healthcare entrepreneurship or as profiting from the very immigration loopholes she now campaigns against will likely depend on how much detail emerges in the coming months. In an era when hidden contradictions between public positions and private conduct have ended political careers, the pressure to provide full answers will only grow.
Maine's 2026 gubernatorial race carries real weight for the state GOP. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is term-limited, creating an open-seat contest that Republicans view as one of their best pickup opportunities in New England. The party cannot afford a nominee who arrives at the general election already damaged by primary-season revelations.
For Somers, the path forward likely requires a more detailed public accounting of her time running BabyMaternity Inc. Silence or vague deflection tends to feed opposition research cycles rather than end them. Her competitors in the primary have every incentive to keep the story alive.
Republican voters will decide whether a candidate who once ran birthing clinics along the border can credibly lead on immigration. That question sits at the intersection of biography and policy, where campaigns are won or lost.
