State Department to Issue Rules Restricting U.S. Travel for Pregnant Foreigners

State Department to Issue Rules Restricting U.S. Travel for Pregnant Foreigners

Rules designed to crack down on what Trump administration calls ‘birth tourism’
Federal agents at an apartment complex in Irvine, Calif., suspected of involvement in ‘maternity tourism’ schemes in 2015. Photo: bob riha jr/Reuters
 

WASHINGTON—The State Department is adopting a new set of rules that will make it tougher for pregnant foreigners to visit the U.S. on tourist visas, an effort to prevent individuals from coming to the U.S. to give birth.

The new rules unveiled on Thursday, which take effect Friday, are aimed at cracking down on what the Trump administration calls “birth tourism.” They form another plank in the administration’s long-running effort to restrict access to the U.S., both to people looking to immigrate and others, particularly from certain countries, from visiting at all.

Under the U.S. Constitution, almost all babies born in the U.S. are granted U.S. citizenship.