Marco Rubio Cracks Down on 'Birth Tourism' Scammers Who 'Sell Citizenship' to US

Source: MEDIAite

Jun 13th, 2026, 4:50 pm


Secretary of State Marco Rubio is spearheading the Trump administration’s crackdown on “birth tourism” by targeting scam artists who have been using bogus documents and visas to let pregnant travelers come to the U.S. and give birth to kids who automatically become American citizens.

Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany had a report on the crackdown on Saturday in America. She reported hundreds of visas were yanked by the administration last week. “The State Department [is] shutting down a sophisticated tourism network after the U.S. Embassy in West Africa revealed more than 100 foreign nationals were using fraudulent documents and visa fixers to illegally obtain American citizenship,” McEnany explained.

“It was a similar story in North Africa. Over 100 Visas were just revoked as embassy there said expecting mothers were coming to America to give birth for the sole purpose of giving their child American citizenship,” she continued. “Meanwhile in Europe, we now know that there was over 400 suspected birth tourism cases since 2024.”

McEnany then brought on State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott to discuss it more. “These are networks that are essentially trying to sell citizenship to the United States as if it was a commodity,” Pigott said. “That includes coaching people on how to defraud U.S. Consular Officers to try to obtain a visa through fraud.”

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/tv/marco-rubio-cracks-down-on-birth-tourism-scammers-who-sell-citizenship-to-us/