United States president Donald Trump has now taken his fight against immigration a step further by announcing that no visas would be given to any pregnant woman who wants to get into the United States for the so-called "birth tourism."
According to the statement issued by the White House on the issue, pregnant foreigners are making use of such visas "to secure automatic and permanent American citizenship for their children by giving birth on American soil."
"The integrity of American citizenship must be protected," said the White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham in the statement.
The White House said that the Trump administration will no longer issue temporary B-1 and B-2 visitor visas for "aliens seeking to enter the United States for 'birth tourism.'"
The White House statement also argued that the action against "birth tourism" was aimed for securing public safety and national security as well as aimed to maintain the "integrity of our immigration system", while calling the practice of the so called “birth tourism” as "a glaring immigration loophole."
"The birth tourism industry threatens to overburden valuable hospital resources and is rife with criminal activity, as reflected in federal prosecutions," it said.
"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," the White House said. "It will also defend American taxpayers from having their hard-earned dollars siphoned away to finance the direct and downstream costs associated with birth tourism," it added.
Under the US Constitution, anyone who is born on American soil is guaranteed American citizenship.
One of the priorities set out for his administration by Trump is to restrict illegal immigration and had issued threats to completely eliminate birthright citizenship on earlier occasions too.
According to this new rule, a US consular officer "shall deny a B nonimmigrant visa to an alien who he or she has reason to believe intends to travel" to the United States with the intention of giving birth in the country.
However analysts said that there could be issues in implementing the new rule.
"Consular officers have been directed not to ask all female applicants if they are pregnant or intend to become pregnant", a State Department official told reporters on the issue. "Officers will not be allowed to require any sort of pregnancy test," the official added.
The Trump administration has estimated that every year, thousands of children were born in the United States to mothers who had entered into the country through the B visa route, the official said and added that the number of births were rising each year.
Between mid-2016 and mid-2017, approximately 33,000 babies born from "birth tourism", according to data available with the Center for Immigration Studies. The average annual number of births in the United States is about 3.8 million.
Three networks which worked to offer the possibility to Chinese nationals to give birth in California had been broken up, the law enforcement authorities had announced about a year ago. Some of the networks offering “birth tourism” charged as much as $100,000 to women who want to have a baby on US soil, showed data from the State Department.
(Source:www.livemint.com)
According to the statement issued by the White House on the issue, pregnant foreigners are making use of such visas "to secure automatic and permanent American citizenship for their children by giving birth on American soil."
"The integrity of American citizenship must be protected," said the White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham in the statement.
The White House said that the Trump administration will no longer issue temporary B-1 and B-2 visitor visas for "aliens seeking to enter the United States for 'birth tourism.'"
The White House statement also argued that the action against "birth tourism" was aimed for securing public safety and national security as well as aimed to maintain the "integrity of our immigration system", while calling the practice of the so called “birth tourism” as "a glaring immigration loophole."
"The birth tourism industry threatens to overburden valuable hospital resources and is rife with criminal activity, as reflected in federal prosecutions," it said.
"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," the White House said. "It will also defend American taxpayers from having their hard-earned dollars siphoned away to finance the direct and downstream costs associated with birth tourism," it added.
Under the US Constitution, anyone who is born on American soil is guaranteed American citizenship.
One of the priorities set out for his administration by Trump is to restrict illegal immigration and had issued threats to completely eliminate birthright citizenship on earlier occasions too.
According to this new rule, a US consular officer "shall deny a B nonimmigrant visa to an alien who he or she has reason to believe intends to travel" to the United States with the intention of giving birth in the country.
However analysts said that there could be issues in implementing the new rule.
"Consular officers have been directed not to ask all female applicants if they are pregnant or intend to become pregnant", a State Department official told reporters on the issue. "Officers will not be allowed to require any sort of pregnancy test," the official added.
The Trump administration has estimated that every year, thousands of children were born in the United States to mothers who had entered into the country through the B visa route, the official said and added that the number of births were rising each year.
Between mid-2016 and mid-2017, approximately 33,000 babies born from "birth tourism", according to data available with the Center for Immigration Studies. The average annual number of births in the United States is about 3.8 million.
Three networks which worked to offer the possibility to Chinese nationals to give birth in California had been broken up, the law enforcement authorities had announced about a year ago. Some of the networks offering “birth tourism” charged as much as $100,000 to women who want to have a baby on US soil, showed data from the State Department.
(Source:www.livemint.com)
