Overview
- President Trump signed executive orders on August 6 directing agencies to curb birth tourism and expand steps to limit entry for people who travel to the United States primarily to give birth.
- The State Department announced a Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force on Wednesday and says it has reviewed global visa records and revoked over 600 visas tied to suspected birth tourism or facilitation.
- Officials say the campaign focuses on visa denial, revocation, removal and prosecution of facilitators who advertise packages, coach applicants or allegedly forge documents rather than retroactively stripping U.S. citizenship from children born here.
- Civil rights groups including the ACLU have filed lawsuits seeking to block the executive orders and experts dispute the administration’s claims about the overall scale of birth tourism.
- Heightened consular screening and revocations are rattling lawful nonimmigrant visa-holders and prompting state probes, notably in Texas, that could raise hospital, licensing and cross-border enforcement questions going forward.