Pregnant Women To Face Strict US Visa Application Process

In an effort to check the number of foreigners gaining American citizenship through birth, the United States is set to announce plans to reduce the number of pregnant women coming into the country.
 
It has become a common practice among Nigerian women of the middle and upper class to give birth to their babies in the US either to ensure the safe delivery of their children or automatic American citizenship.

Visa applicants deemed by consular officers to be coming to the US primarily to give birth will now be treated like other foreigners coming to the US for medical treatment, according to State Department guidance sent on Wednesday and viewed by The Associated Press.

The applicants will have to prove they are coming for medical treatment and they have the money to pay for it.

The practice of coming to the US to give birth is constitutionally legal, although there are some cases of authorities arresting operators of birth tourism agencies for visa fraud or tax evasion. .

The Trump administration has been restricting all forms of immigration in recent times, but the President has been particularly plagued by the issue of birthright citizenship which guarantees anyone born in the US a citizen.

Trump has railed against the practice and threatened to end it, but scholars and members of his administration have said it’s not so easy to do.

Birth tourism is a lucrative business in both the US and abroad. American companies take out advertisements and charge up to $80,000 to facilitate the practice, offering hotel rooms and medical care.

READ ALSO: CAN: Miyetti Allah Should Be Declared A Terrorist Group

The draft rule is “intended to address the national security and law enforcement risks associated with birth tourism, including criminal activity associated with the birth tourism industry,” a State Department spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, also known as Shi’ites, has said there is no basis to blame them for the decision of the US to extend visa restrictions to Nigeria.

The President, Media Forum for the IMN, Ibrahim Musa, said the sect was a peaceful movement and had no history of bearing arms even in the face of provocations.

Musa made this statement in reaction to a former Nigerian diplomat, Rasheed Akinkuolie, who linked the US visa restriction on Nigeria to the activities of Shi’ites in the country.

Akinkuolie had said, “There is a large Shi’ites population in Nigeria and there is a problem between the US and Iran over the killing of the Commander of the Quds Forces, Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

“There have been demonstrations in many northern cities and even in Abuja over the killing of Soleimani and they even burnt US flags. That is a signal. Also, remember a Nigerian, Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to bomb an American plane on behalf of Al-Qaeda.”

But the Shi’ites spokesman rejected Akinkuolie’s analysis.

He said, “We are a peaceful movement with no history of terrorist attack ever in spite of unfair profiling and blackmail.

“We have been victims of state terror, including the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of citizens, and the hurried and secret mass burial in mass graves, which, by any standard, is a war crime.

 “Yet, we have never taken up arms against the country or against any foreign nationals or interests in retaliation. Thus, there is no basis for citing us as the reason for any US action.”