The United States will no longer issue tourist tourist visas to foreign women travelling to the country on tourist visas, citing security concerns arising from so-called “birth tourism“.
The new rules were unveiled by the State Department on Thursday, and seek to put an end to the practice of giving birth in the US so that the child can obtain US citizenship.
It is not clear how the State Department would determine that people seeking to travel to the US are pregnant, though the rule requires that officials reject visa applications when the individual’s “primary purpose” is to obtain American citizenship for a child by giving birth on US soil.
“Closing this glaring immigration loophole will combat these endemic abuses and ultimately protect the United States from the national security risks created by this practice,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement, alleging that birth tourism overburdens hospital resources and that it is “rife with criminal activity”.
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