Rubio-Led State Dept. Targets Birth Tourism Visa Networks
14th June 2026
Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s State Department has dismantled organized “birth tourism” networks across West Africa, North Africa and Europe, revoking hundreds of visitor visas tied to schemes that helped pregnant foreign nationals enter the United States to give birth and secure automatic citizenship for their children.
The department detailed more than 600 cases in a June 10 series of posts on X, framing the enforcement push as a defense of the “integrity of U.S. citizenship” against foreigners obtaining visitor visas for the primary purpose of childbirth.
A U.S. Embassy in West Africa uncovered a network of more than 100 foreign nationals using fraudulent documents and visa “fixers”; a U.S. Embassy in North Africa revoked more than 100 additional visas issued to parents who traveled chiefly to deliver in the U.S.
The European caseload runs deeper.