Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Trump administration has revoked more than 6,000 visas in its crackdown on so-called birth tourism, the US Department of State announced on Thursday, November 12 — a sharp escalation of an enforcement campaign that began only three months ago.
The department's Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force said it has now cancelled the visas of foreigners who engaged in or facilitated the practice of travelling to the United States to give birth so a child can claim American citizenship. The announcement, posted on the department's official X account, warned that officials are “identifying and holding accountable everyone involved in this illicit practice.”
From 600 to 6,000 in Three Months
The scale of the campaign has grown rapidly. When the State Department established the task force on August 12, it said it had already revoked more than 600 visas worldwide. An update on October 31 put the figure at more than 4,000. The latest announcement pushes it past 6,000.
Because each figure was stated as a threshold — “more than” — the exact number of additional revocations cannot be established from the announcements alone. What is clear is the direction: the enforcement drive is widening, and quickly.
The October announcement said more than 700 of the revoked visas belonged to Chinese nationals. The latest statement carried no updated nationality breakdown, so it is not possible to say from the announcement which countries account for the newest revocations.
What Birth Tourism Means — and What the Law Says
Birth tourism refers to the practice of pregnant foreign nationals travelling to the United States specifically to give birth on American soil, so the child secures US citizenship under the 14th Amendment's birthright citizenship guarantee. The State Department describes the practice as illicit, and under a department rule, travelling to the United States “with the primary purpose of obtaining US citizenship for a child by giving birth in the United States is an impermissible basis for the issuance of a B nonimmigrant visa.”
The crackdown reaches beyond the travellers themselves. The task force said it is also targeting individuals and commercial operators who arrange such trips, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a separate visa restriction policy on September 23 aimed at foreign nationals who knowingly engage in or facilitate birth tourism.
President Donald Trump laid the groundwork in August, signing Executive Order 14419, titled “Ending Birth Tourism,” on August 6. The order established a federal policy against using temporary immigration categories for childbirth-related journeys intended to secure citizenship for children.
Part of a Wider Visa Crackdown
The birth tourism campaign is one piece of a much larger visa enforcement effort. The State Department has said the administration has revoked more than 300,000 visas since January 2025, and spokesman Tommy Pigott has said the administration has revoked visas faster than any previous administration in US history.
Officials have framed the birth tourism drive as a matter of closing a loophole in the immigration system and protecting the integrity of the visa process. Supporters of the policy argue that birth tourism exploits birthright citizenship and that the businesses arranging such trips operate as a commercial industry built around it.
It is worth noting what the announcement does not establish. A visa revocation is not by itself a deportation or a criminal conviction, and the department has not disclosed how it identifies individuals connected to birth tourism networks or what evidence it relies on in individual cases.
What Happens Next
The task force shows no sign of slowing down. With the total climbing from 600 to more than 6,000 in three months, and with the department warning that facilitators and commercial operators are now in its sights, further announcements are likely in the weeks ahead.
For travellers, the message from Washington is blunt: a visa issued for tourism or business cannot be used as a route to US citizenship for a newborn — and the administration is now actively looking for those who try.
Sources: US Department of State announcement, November 12, 2026; IANS; American Bazaar Online.