The United States has revoked around 900 temporary visas as part of the package of administrative and immigration measures pushed by the Trump Administration to curb the so-called "birth tourism," after the Supreme Court nullified the executive order that aimed to eliminate birthright citizenship.
"Nearly 900 visas have already been revoked just since this task force was launched. And this adds to the measures we have taken since the beginning of this administration to dismantle birth tourism networks around the world," said State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott in an interview with the conservative network Newsmax.
The spokesperson was referring to the task force created by the State Department in close coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), whose mission is to locate those who use tourist visas with the intention of traveling to the United States to give birth on U.S. soil.
"We are seeing that this has become a global phenomenon. These lucrative networks try to sell U.S. citizenship," he denounced, explaining that these fraudulent schemes market the idea of a "world without borders" or "automatic citizenship" while concealing their business model based on "birth tourism."
The revocations come after then-President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order in January that defined "birth tourism" as a way to "undermine the integrity of the immigration system" with the aim of obtaining "permanent immigration benefits."
The directive from the Republican leader stated that these individuals obtain temporary visas "for studies, exchanges, temporary employment, tourism, and other transitional activities," settle in the country, and subsequently try to take advantage of their children's citizenship for their own benefit.
With this approach, Trump aims to limit access to citizenship for those born in the United States — where the principle of 'ius solis' applies, as opposed to the more common 'ius sanguinis' in Europe — shortly after the Supreme Court invalidated his attempt to end birthright citizenship, considering it violated the Fourteenth Amendment.