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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents were not United States citizens when he was born in the U.S., announced Wednesday that the State Department has revoked more than 600 visas as part of a new crackdown on so-called "birth tourism" networks that the Trump administration says exploit America's immigration laws.
Rubio unveiled the enforcement effort while declaring on X that "American citizenship is not for sale," accusing organized networks of helping foreign nationals travel to the United States for the purpose of giving birth on American soil so their children will be U.S. citizens.
"Birth tourism represents a conundrum for policymakers. Giving birth on U.S. territory is not inherently illegal, but coming to the U.S. intentionally to give birth and the actions of the companies that Rubio describes, like visa fraud, are crimes," Migration Policy Institute Associate Policy Analyst Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh told Newsweek.
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When reached for further comment, the State Department referred Newsweek to its press release on the task force.
Marco Rubio's Birthright Story: What to Know
The announcement places Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who were later naturalized, at the forefront of one of the administration's most aggressive efforts yet to curb what officials describe as the exploitation of citizenship laws.
Born in Miami in 1971, around 15 years after his parents arrived in the U.S., Rubio became a U.S. citizen under the same constitutional principle now at the center of a heated political debate.
When his presidential eligibility was challenged in 2016, his lawyers argued that his U.S. birth made him a natural-born citizen under English common law, Supreme Court precedent, and the Fourteenth Amendment tradition.
That argument is in line with what has long been the legal understanding of birthright citizenship, but conflicts with a broader theory pushed in an executive order by President Donald Trump in 2025 to make parental citizenship or permanent residence necessary for American citizenship to be granted to newborns.
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Birthright Citizenship and Birth Tourism
The 14th Amendment generally guarantees birthright citizenship to nearly all children born in the United States, regardless of their parents' immigration status. While the administration's latest action targeting "birth tourism" does not seek to alter that constitutional protection, it targets individuals accused of using fraud or deception to obtain visas for the purpose of giving birth in the country.
"Elaborate birth tourism rings are profiting off the exploitation of America's laws, coaching foreigners to defraud the U.S. visa system, arranging travel and housing, and even forging documents, all to enable foreign nationals to obtain citizenship for their children," Rubio said in a statement.
According to the State Department, a new Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force has been established to investigate the activities of visa holders, identify networks facilitating birth tourism and pursue enforcement actions against those allegedly involved. Rubio said the task force has already taken action against hundreds of foreign nationals around the world during its first month of operation.
"The phrase 'birth tourist' is used to describe someone who comes to the U.S. for the sole purpose of giving birth, resulting in U.S. citizenship for that child, a different scenario than Rubio’s birth or births in the U.S. to unauthorized parents, though all fall under the umbrella of birthright citizenship," Putzel-Kavanaugh said.
One issue that could be faced is pinning down the data on births resulting from birth tourism. The CDC suggests that less than 1 percent of annual births could be linked to birth tourism.
"Birth tourism undermines the integrity of birthright citizenship as asylum shopping undermines our humanitarian programs," Jeremy Beck, co-president of NumbersUSA, which advocates for immigration reform, told Newsweek. "Like most countries, the United States grants automatic citizenship to the U.S.-born children of American citizens and legal permanent residents. But the U.S. and Canada are the only two developed economies to extend that to the children of tourists."
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The Department of Justice announcement comes weeks after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Barbara that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present in the country are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment, rejecting Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship.
Those moves come as the Trump administration continues to make immigration enforcement a central focus of its agenda. Trump has repeatedly criticized birthright citizenship and sought ways to restrict what supporters call "citizenship tourism," though constitutional scholars have debated the extent to which the executive branch can alter longstanding interpretations of the 14th Amendment.
"Since 2020, it has been U.S. policy to deny visitor visas to travelers whose primary purpose is giving birth in the United States, but the Supreme Court ruling means anyone who can successfully lie to an immigration agent must be rewarded with a U.S.-citizen child," Beck said. "That makes it all the more important to stop birth tourism before entry."
The State Department did not immediately release details about the countries involved in the visa revocations or identify specific organizations targeted by the task force.
Rubio said the effort is only beginning.
"The State Department will use all available tools to dismantle birth tourism networks and defend the integrity of U.S. citizenship," he said.
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Can Pregnant Women Be Denied Visas?
Traveling to the United States while pregnant is not, by itself, illegal. The legal issue is the traveler’s primary purpose and whether she truthfully represents that purpose.
"Past administrations, like the current administration, have largely focused on criminal investigations into birth tourism companies," Putzel-Kavanaugh said. "But birth tourism was also a topic of concern in the first Trump administration, and they issued a regulation with stricter scrutiny for pregnant tourist visa applicants."
Since January 2020, State Department rules have instructed consular officers to deny a B visitor visa when they have reason to believe an applicant’s primary purpose is to give birth in the United States so that the child obtains citizenship.
Applicants seeking medical treatment also must demonstrate arrangements for the treatment and the ability to pay. Current State Department guidance separately requires visitor visa applicants to demonstrate a temporary purpose, a residence abroad, and legitimate business or pleasure activities.
The new task force is an apparent expansion and centralization of enforcement, including retrospective examination of visa holders’ travel histories, visa revocations rather than merely denials at the application stage, coordination with DHS, and a stated focus on commercial facilitators and networks.
Beck told Newsweek that he believes lawmakers need to take stronger action on birth tourism by enacting new legislation.
"The Obama Administration focused enforcement almost exclusively on maternity hotels like You Win that coached clients on how to commit fraud, while the Trump Administration gave more leeway to consular officers abroad in 2020 to disrupt birth tourism. The Biden Administration left that Trump policy in place," he said.
"But Congress needs to codify the rules and explicitly make tourists inadmissible if their intent is to have a baby for citizenship purposes. S. 5023 by Senator Marsha Blackburn and H.R. 9919 by Representative Rich McCormick would do that."
Update 8/12/26, 2:59 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Jeremy Beck.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Sam Wilson.
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