President Donald Trump’s administration and allies on Capitol Hill have put forth efforts to crack down on the practice of traveling to the United States to give birth to an American citizen, known as birthright tourism.
As announced in a Tuesday statement, the State Department created the Birthright Tourism Prevention Taskforce to work with the Department of Homeland Security to investigate suspected cases of birth tourism by going after suspected foreign nationals who use temporary visas to travel to the United States to give birth and secure U.S. citizenship for their children.
The department is working with the Bureau of Consular Affairs and consular officers, stationed at U.S. embassies and consulates, who have identified what officials described as recurring patterns of deception among some visa applicants.
The department warned that foreign nationals who intentionally misrepresent the purpose of their travel to the United States may become permanently ineligible for a visa or admission into the country.
Based on the findings of the task force and cooperating institutions, State Department officials have said that the initiative has examined the travel histories of visa holders worldwide and has already resulted in the revocation of more than 600 visas, which the department believed indicated potential ineligibility.
Aside from revoking visas from foreign nationals believed to be facilitators of birthright tourism, the task force is also targeting the tourism networks they run.
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According to the State Department, some facilitators advertise themselves as doulas, midwives, or wellness advocates while promoting services that include visa assistance, hospital arrangements, and guidance on giving birth in the United States.
Officials also allege that some operators forge medical records, coach clients to conceal the true purpose of their travel, or avoid paying hospital bills. Online advertisements often promise “automatic citizenship” and “a future without borders,” according to the department.
In its release, the department noted several examples uncovered during investigations into people who ultimately had their visas revoked by the task force, including a couple who claimed they were on a shopping vacation but were actually traveling to give birth to two children.
Another case included one of a traveler who obtained a visa for what was described as a vacation to Orlando, but instead traveled to Los Angeles and gave birth five days after arriving in the United States.
The State Department has claimed that the task force will continue its efforts.
Trump’s Allies on the Hill
In the Senate, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced the SAFE KIDS Act earlier this year, which would address loopholes in existing U.S. immigration law.
“There has to be some value to American citizenship. We need to keep the rest of the world from exploiting our immigration system, and that includes letting adversarial nations like Communist China use surrogacy to do it,” Scott previously told the Daily Signal.
“We’ve already seen troubling cases of human trafficking and abuse linked to international surrogacy schemes, as our foreign adversaries prove willing to exploit every loophole they can to destroy us,” the senator from Florida continued.
If enacted into law, Scott’s effort, which has been co-sponsored by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, would give people who profit off birthright citizenship—by knowingly or recklessly facilitating a prohibited commercial surrogacy agreement with citizens from a foreign adversarial nation—a misdemeanor.
The law would also invalidate any commercial surrogacy agreement that is entered into with a citizen of a foreign adversarial nation.
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