State Department establishes task force to end ‘birth tourism’

The State Department on Tuesday announced it has established a task force to end “birth tourism,” or the practice of traveling to a country to give birth there, escalating President Trump’s campaign against birthright citizenship, the constitutional right granting American citizenship to babies born in the United States. 

“As President Trump has made clear, citizenship is not a commodity to be acquired through the calculated exploitation of U.S. immigration laws,” the State Department said in a statement.

“The Department of State is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to combat birth tourism and protect the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.”

The State Department’s establishment of a task force comes after Trump signed two executive orders on Aug. 6 attempting to limit birthright citizenship. The president’s executive order came after the Supreme Court on June 30 struck down Trump’s first attempt to limit citizenship for babies born in the U.S.

The Birth Tourism Prevention Task Force is meant to review activities of visa holders “worldwide,” the State Department said, to identify instances of the practice and take action to revoke visas of those who engage in or facilitate it, and it will work to dismantle the networks that........

© The Hill