For years, a shadow industry has quietly marketed a path around America’s immigration laws: pay for a “birth in the U.S.” package, and secure automatic citizenship for your child, no matter the cost to the American taxpayer. Now the Trump administration is dismantling that industry, one revoked visa at a time.
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From Fox News:
The State Department’s spokesman, Tommy Pigott, told Fox News Digital that under the direction of President Donald Trump, the American government is partnering with agencies across the globe to halt the practice of birth tourism. Birth tourism refers to travel to the United States for the primary purpose of giving birth so a child can obtain U.S. citizenship. The practice has been linked to visa-fraud schemes in which applicants conceal or misrepresent the purpose of their travel, often while seeking entry on visitor visas. A U.S.-citizen child may also create future immigration options for family members, including the ability to petition for a parent after turning 21.
“The first step in that is identifying them,” Pigott said. “We have consular officers around the world that work with international partners, that work for law enforcement officials to identify patterns that indicate a birth tourism network, and then when that is identified, we take actions such as revoking their visas, which was the recent announcement that we made, to make sure that we’re dismantling those networks.” Earlier this month, the State Department announced that it was launching a Birth Tourism and Prevention Task Force.
“There were some advertisements that were being published talking about a world without borders or automatic guaranteed citizenship in their advertisements while they were pretending to offer health care services,” Pigott said. “In reality, that is fraud, and the fraud actually doesn’t just end when it has to do with the birth tourism example of lying to the consular officer. These networks are set up in the United States and then further coach these individuals on how to not pay their medical bills. So you have fraud when you enter the United States and then the American taxpayer is left footing the bill. It comes down to the fundamental principle: we’re gonna protect the sacred privilege of American citizenship and not allow this fraud to happen.”
The task force, officially launched on August 12, has already revoked more than 750 visas tied to suspected birth-tourism activity, with officials expecting that number to climb dramatically in the weeks ahead. Through the task force, government officials are now analyzing travel trends by visa holders around the world in real time to catch suspicious patterns before fraud occurs. In one recent case, a woman entered the U.S. on a tourist visa under the guise of a weeks-long vacation, but continuously received visits from her partner, who lived outside the country. Officials recognized the pattern as visits timed to support the woman during the later stages of her pregnancy and possibly be present for the birth, and the visas were revoked. President Trump did not mince words about the broader scheme: “They’re building businesses around birthright citizenship. That’s not the way it was supposed to work. It’s a disgrace. They’re buying their way in, and we’re not going to let it happen.” Pigott also noted that visa security fits into the administration’s broader border strategy, following an era in which an estimated 10 million people crossed into the U.S. illegally under the previous administration.
This crackdown exposes an uncomfortable truth: for years, criminal networks have openly advertised a way to buy American citizenship, exploiting loopholes while sticking hospitals and American taxpayers with unpaid medical bills. Citizenship is not a product to be purchased through deception, but “the sacred privilege” Pigott described, one this nation has fought and sacrificed to preserve. Scripture calls God’s people to value truth over deceit and to uphold just governance (Proverbs 12:22, Romans 13:1-4), and a nation’s laws and borders reflect an order that matters to a God who is not the author of confusion.
Join us in praying that God would grant wisdom and diligence to the officials dismantling these fraud networks, that integrity would be restored to America’s immigration system, and that this task force would succeed in closing loopholes that have been abused for profit while America’s borders and laws are once again honored and respected.
How are you praying about this issue? Share your prayers and scriptures in the comments below.
(Excerpt from Fox News. Photo Credit: CBP photo by Jerry Glaser)
