U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the creation of a State Department task force to combat "birth tourism"—a term used by the Trump administration to refer to foreign women who come to the United States to give birth on U.S. territory and secure American citizenship for their child, UNN reports, citing AP.
Details
Trump and his administration unsuccessfully fought in court to abolish "birthright citizenship," which grants U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. territory. Despite these legal setbacks, Trump continued his efforts to end the practice.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Rubio said the new task force would "review the activities of visa holders, dismantle illegal birth tourism networks, and put an end to this despicable abuse of our nation's laws."
He said that since the task force was established last month, it had already taken steps to revoke the visas of more than 600 people suspected of participating in birth tourism schemes.