On Thursday, the Trump Administration announced a new policy to further impede a process known as “birth tourism.” According to a State Department cable sent to embassies around the world, this policy will go into effect tomorrow, Friday, January 24.
Starting Friday, the State Department “will no longer issue temporary visitor (B-1/B-2) visas to aliens seeking to enter the United States for ‘birth tourism.”
According to the cables, consular officers “must not ask a visa applicant whether they are pregnant unless you have a specific articulable reason to believe they may be pregnant and planning to give birth in the United States. You should document any such reason in your case notes. You must not, as a matter of course, ask all female applicants (or any specific sub-sets of applicants) whether they are pregnant or intend to become pregnant.”
The State Department said that this rule change is with the goal of addressing national security.