WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — The State Department has revoked more than 600 visas as part of a new enforcement effort targeting birth tourism.
The department also created a Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force to identify foreign nationals suspected of traveling to the United States primarily to give birth and people or organizations that help arrange those trips.
The task force uses information from the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to review visa and travel records.
The announcement follows President Donald Trump’s Aug. 6 executive order, “Ending Birth Tourism,” which defines the practice as entering the United States on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth.
The order allows the secretaries of state and homeland security to deny or revoke visas, block entry, remove foreign nationals and impose permanent entry bans in certain cases. It also applies to people who facilitate birth tourism and includes humanitarian and national-interest exemptions.
The State Department said some birth tourism businesses provide visa assistance, travel arrangements and coordination with U.S. hospitals. The department also accused some operators of coaching clients to conceal the purpose of their travel or use false documents.
In one case cited by the department, a couple said they planned to attend a conference and shop in the United States but instead traveled to give birth. Officials said the couple misrepresented their plans on visa applications, and their visas were later revoked.
Federal rules have restricted the use of visitor visas for birth tourism since 2020. Consular officers can deny B visas when they determine that an applicant’s primary purpose for traveling to the United States is to give birth in order to obtain U.S. citizenship for a child.
