US Revokes Over 600 Visas In Birth Tourism Crackdown
The United States Department of State has established a specialised task force to clamp down on birth tourism, revoking more than 600 visas from foreign nationals across the globe within its first month of operation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday.
The Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force was set up to investigate foreign nationals and organisations suspected of exploiting US immigration and citizenship laws by arranging travel to the United States for the purpose of giving birth.
Rubio said the task force reviewed visa-holder activity, disrupted illegal birth tourism operations and moved to revoke visas of individuals found to have misused the US visa system for the practice.
The task force is backed by two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on August 6, titled “Ending Birth Tourism” and “Continuing To Protect The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship.”
The orders delegated authority to the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to halt the practice, defining birth tourism as the entry of a foreign national into the US via a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil.
A US embassy in North Africa has separately revoked more than 100 visas for parents who came to the United States primarily to give birth so their children would obtain US citizenship.
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The State Department separately disclosed this week that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas in total since Trump returned to office.
The State Department said birth tourism facilitators often market themselves as doulas, midwives or wellness advocates while openly advertising “birth in the U.S.” services, visa coaching and hospital arrangements, turning what it described as an abuse of the immigration system into a lucrative for-profit industry.