'Birth Tourism': Trump To Impose Visa Restrictions On Pregnant Women Coming To US

For years now, “birth tourism” has been a lucrative business in the U.S. and abroad, wherein advertisements are put up by American companies providing, at a set charge, a chance for women to give birth in America. This allows their child to retain American citizenship even though the mother is from a different nationality. But looks like this practice will come to a halt in the United States as the Trump administration, in its recently rolled out visa restrictions, plans to restrict pregnant women traveling to the US on tourist visas.

Some American companies have been running this business, where they provide expecting mothers, residing in other countries, facilities like hotel rooms and medical care in America at a hefty amount of over $80,000. This illegal practice has led to many women traveling from Russia and China to give birth in the U.S., which makes the newborn, by default, the recipient of the coveted U.S. passport.

Once the newly designed rules are in place, pregnant women planning to the US will find it more difficult to do so on travel visas. As per the regulations, they would be obligated to clear an additional hurdle before obtaining the visas- they will have to convince a consular officer that they are not visiting the US for the sole reason of giving birth and that they have another legitimate reason.

While efforts to do away with the practice of “birthright citizenship” has been going on even before Trump assumed office, the President has specifically included the point in his latest attempt to restrict all forms of immigration to end the fault law once and for all. As per the “birthright citizenship,” anyone who is born in the U.S. is considered a citizen, under the Constitution, even the ones whose parents are not US citizens.

But putting an end to the long-running practice will prove to be difficult as many before Trump had tried and failed to remove it. For starters, how can officers determine whether a woman is pregnant while making her tourist visa, should they turn her away just because they have a sneaking suspicion that she is pregnant?

At the moment, consular officers aren't told to ask a woman if she is pregnant or intends to become so, during visa interviews but as per the latest regulations, they have to somehow ascend to the next level in the interview to determine whether she would be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth.