The Trump administration has revealed new visa rules aimed at restricting a practice known as “birth tourism." That refers to cases when women travel to the United States to give birth so their children can have U.S. citizenship.
The new rules in the Federal Register on Thursday say applicants will be denied tourist visas if they are determined by consular officers to be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth.
It is a bigger hurdle to overcome, proving they are traveling to the U.S. because they have a medical need and not just because they want to give birth in the country.
"An entire 'birth tourism' industry has evolved to assist pregnant women from other countries to come to the United States to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children by giving birth in the United States, and thereby entitle their children to the benefits of U.S. citizenship," according to the State Department rule.
The regulations will go into effect Friday.
The rule raises questions about how officers would determine whether a woman is pregnant and whether a woman could get turned away by border officers who suspect she may be.
There are no figures currently on how many foreign women come to the U.S. to give birth. But "birth tourists" often come from China, Russia and Nigeria, according to the AP.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration laws and has close ties to Trump administration officials, estimates there are around 33,000 "birth tourists" every year.
