Nearly 900 Birth Tourism Visas Revoked as Feds Widen Task Force Crackdown

The U.S. State Department says it has revoked nearly 900 visas tied to birth tourism since early August, part of a rapidly escalating federal effort to identify foreign nationals it believes are traveling to the United States solely to give birth for citizenship purposes. Officials say the department is reviewing visas currently held by individuals and looking for patterns suggesting a tourist visa holder's trip is primarily aimed at securing American citizenship for a newborn.

According to KDBC, Luke Ortega, identified as a deputy spokesperson at the U.S. Department of State, said the number of non-U.S. citizens coming to the country to give birth is too high and that the department is taking action rapidly. The State Department has said it found two broad categories of birth tourism cases: individuals who apply for tourist visas while intending to give birth in the U.S., and cases involving organized networks that the department says exploit the immigration system and attempt to commodify American citizenship. Revoking a visa, per the department, signals that the person is no longer welcome in the United States, and officials say they examine information provided in visa applications as part of that review. The department did not provide statistics on how many non-U.S. citizens have come to the United States to give birth over the last five years, per KDBC's reporting.

Task Force Numbers Have Climbed Fast

The nearly 900 figure marks a sharp jump from where the effort started. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the creation of the Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force on August 12, saying its mission was to review visa holders' travel activity and dismantle facilitation networks, and at that point reported that more than 600 visas had already been revoked worldwide, according to the Indian Express. A week later, State Department principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the count had risen to nearly 900, as reported by Demócrata, with officials describing the targets as networks that profit by coaching applicants to defraud consular officers and by falsely presenting themselves as healthcare providers.

The task force operates under Executive Order 14419, titled Ending Birth Tourism, which President Trump signed on August 6. The order delegates presidential authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to revoke visas, deny entry, and initiate removal proceedings against foreign nationals determined to be traveling primarily to give birth on U.S. soil, according to the White House. That directive builds on a January 2020 State Department rule amending 22 C.F.R. § 41.31, which gave consular officers discretion to deny B-1/B-2 visitor visas by establishing a rebuttable presumption that an applicant traveling while pregnant intends primarily to secure U.S. citizenship for her newborn.

Why The Focus Shifted To Visas

The pivot toward visa administration follows a legal setback for the administration. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that executive orders could not strip 14th Amendment birthright citizenship from infants born on U.S. soil, reaffirming the precedent set in United States v. Wong Kim Ark from 1898, as detailed by Hoodline's coverage of the ruling. Unlike constitutional litigation, consular visa revocations carry almost no administrative appeal process or mandatory judicial review, which is why the executive branch has been able to move on thousands of cancellations far faster than it could reshape birthright citizenship law through the courts, per reporting from Eastern Herald.

The task force's work is not the administration's only enforcement track. In April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched a nationwide Birth Tourism Initiative instructing Homeland Security Investigations agents to prioritize fraud, financial crimes, and organized facilitation networks tied to maternity travel, according to Reuters — an effort Hoodline reported on at its launch. Separately, the State Department has said the Trump administration has revoked more than 175,000 U.S. visas overall since returning to office in January 2025, primarily following law enforcement encounters involving crimes like assault, theft, driving under the influence, and fraud, per NTD — putting the birth tourism figures into the context of a much larger enforcement push.

How Big Is Birth Tourism, Really

Federal officials frame birth tourism as an exploitation of citizenship law involving organized commercial networks, but demographic researchers put its actual scale in perspective. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates 20,000 to 25,000 birth tourism visits annually, while the Migration Policy Institute cites up to 26,000 births tied to the practice, according to Northeastern Global News — representing less than 1% of the roughly 3.5 to 3.6 million total U.S. births each year. Commercial birth tourism operations are not new to federal law enforcement: in March 2015, agents raided 20 so-called maternity hotels across Southern California that charged foreign nationals between $40,000 and $80,000 for housing, medical care, and visa coaching, as reported by The Guardian at the time.

Congress has also moved on the issue separately from the executive branch's visa actions. In July, U.S. Representatives Greg Steube of Florida and John McGuire of Virginia introduced federal legislation, including the Birthright CLAIM Act, aimed at statutorily restricting automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to temporary nonimmigrant visa holders or undocumented parents. Hoodline previously covered both Steube's Birthright CLAIM Act push and McGuire's companion Birthright Citizenship Clarification Act of 2026 as they were filed.