The State Department announced a new task force Wednesday aimed at identifying and penalizing foreign nationals and facilitators involved in “birth tourism,” including possible visa revocations for those found to have abused the U.S. immigration system.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The State Department is creating a specialized task force to target “birth tourism,” stepping up federal efforts against foreign nationals who travel to the United States primarily to give birth so their children can obtain the benefits associated with U.S. citizenship.
The department announced the initiative Wednesday, describing birth tourism as an increasingly commercialized practice and warning that immigration and visa privileges could be revoked from people who participate in or facilitate such arrangements.
Under U.S. immigration rules, traveling to the United States for the primary purpose of giving birth is prohibited. The new task force will focus on identifying individuals who allegedly misuse the visa system for that purpose and examining visas that may have been obtained or used in connection with birth-tourism operations.
The initiative comes as the federal government faces limits on what action it can take after a foreign national has successfully entered the country and given birth on U.S. soil, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling involving birthright citizenship.
Rather than focusing solely on citizenship determinations after a child is born, the State Department’s effort will concentrate on the immigration process itself, including the conduct of visa holders and people who assist foreign nationals in arranging travel designed primarily around giving birth in the United States.
The department characterized birth tourism as more than an isolated immigration violation, saying an industry has developed around arranging such travel and helping foreign nationals navigate the process.
The task force is expected to review cases involving visa holders suspected of participating in birth tourism and consider revocation of visas issued to individuals involved in the practice.
The State Department also put facilitators on notice that helping foreign nationals exploit the visa system could carry immigration consequences of its own.
“Citizenship is not a commodity to be acquired through calculated exploitation and evasion of the immigration laws,” the agency warned. “Foreign nationals who abuse the visa system, and those who help them do so, may lose their visa, their access, and their future in the United States. This is only the beginning.”
The announcement signals that the administration intends to focus enforcement not only on foreign nationals who enter the United States intending to give birth, but also on businesses, organizers or other individuals who assist in arranging such travel.
By targeting visas and future access to the United States, the task force gives the State Department an enforcement mechanism that operates before or independently of questions surrounding the citizenship status of children born on U.S. soil.
The department did not provide figures in the announcement detailing how many birth-tourism cases it expects the task force to investigate or how many visas could ultimately be revoked.
Its statement, however, indicated that the new effort is intended as the beginning of a broader crackdown on the practice, with federal officials examining both those who use the visa system for birth tourism and those who help facilitate it.
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