US authorities crack down on birth tourism to protect taxpayers

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The U.S. Department of State established a specialized task force to target birth tourism schemes. It revoked more than 900 visas within its first few weeks of operation. Federal authorities are reviewing issued visas and travel records to identify noncitizens who lie to consular officials about their travel plans to give birth on U.S. soil.

Birth tourism occurs when foreign travelers apply for temporary tourist visas while concealing intent to give birth in the U.S., so their child acquires citizenship.

State Department officials said they view the practice as a "fraudulent scheme perpetrated against consular officers and taxpayers."

The State Department is coordinating its visa enforcement efforts with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and foreign law enforcement partners to analyze travel patterns, designated contacts and planned accommodations in the U.S.

ABC-7 spoke with Luke Ortega, deputy spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, who said how officials are reviewing visa information to identify birth tourism cases.

“What we do is we go through with a fine-tooth comb at all of the information that we receive from visa applicants and people who hold visas to ensure that they remain eligible for that visa,” Ortega said. “It's something that we're constantly doing; in the case of birth tourism, we're looking very closely at their travel patterns, at the individuals that they might list as points of contact or locations, places where they will be staying in the United States to identify patterns that are indicative of birth tourism.”

The review process targets both pending applications and visas already issued to those who may currently be in the country.

“We are casting a very wide net,” Ortega said. “And yes, that can include people who are already in the United States. And when we make a revocation decision, we pass that information on to the Department of Homeland Security for them to take appropriate action.”

In addition to individual applicants, federal authorities are focusing on foreign networks and commercial rings that advertise birth tourism packages. Officials noted that foreign visitors engaging in birth tourism often fail to pay hospital bills, leaving local taxpayers to cover the medical costs.

“It's important to understand that American citizenship is a sacred privilege,” Ortega said. “It's not something that should be bought or sold or commodified by these services that are committing fraud to bring people into the United States and, most times, passing the costs on to the American taxpayer.”

The task force is part of a broader push by the State Department to increase visa revocations across all categories.

“We've already revoked the visas of more than 175,000 individuals since the beginning of the Trump Administration,” Ortega said. “The vast majority of these folks are people who are coming to the United States and breaking our laws; these are people who are driving around drunk, committing assault, committing burglary, drug crimes.”

Department of State officials emphasized that visa decisions are handled as national security matters intended to enforce immigration laws and safeguard local populations.

“Our actions are aimed at eliminating fraud in our visa system so that the entry and exit of foreigners into the United States is done in a regular and legal and orderly way,” Ortega said. “And that's the important thing that we want to make sure that we are doing: we're combating fraud and we are ending illegal immigration."

"We are doing this in order ultimately to protect U.S. national security and U.S. communities,” he added.

“One of the biggest things that is the benefit for us is ensuring that we are protecting our communities, particularly by removing people who are breaking the law, who are abusing the law,” Ortega added. “As I mentioned, the majority of the visa revocations that we have seen are individuals who are getting arrested for crimes that would, I think, frighten and shock any person driving around drunk, assault, burglary.”