The United States government has revoked more than 600 visas within one month as part of a renewed effort to curb birth tourism and dismantle networks facilitating the practice.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the development on Wednesday, saying the Department of State had created a Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force to investigate visa holders involved in the practice and target organisations operating such schemes.
Rubio said the task force had, within its first month, revoked over 600 visas belonging to foreign nationals from different parts of the world. He stressed that U.S. citizenship should not be treated as a commodity and vowed that the government would use available measures to protect the integrity of American citizenship.
According to the secretary, organised birth tourism networks exploit U.S. immigration laws by helping foreign nationals secure visas, arrange accommodation and travel, and, in some cases, falsify documents so their children can be born in the United States and obtain citizenship.
The latest action forms part of the Trump administration’s wider immigration enforcement drive. The administration has said it has revoked more than 175,000 visas in less than two years from foreign nationals accused of criminal offences, fraud or violating visa conditions.
The move also follows two executive orders recently signed by President Donald Trump targeting birthright citizenship and birth tourism.
The White House said the first order outlines categories of children born to certain non-citizen parents who would not qualify for birthright citizenship, subject to existing legal and constitutional considerations. The second order gives the secretaries of State and Homeland Security additional responsibilities to take steps against birth tourism.
Rubio maintained that the U.S. government would continue pursuing birth tourism networks and take further measures to prevent what it described as the exploitation of American immigration and citizenship laws.