India, Sept. 24 -- The United States has announced a new visa restriction policy targeting people who knowingly engage in or facilitate commercial "birth tourism", including operators of birth-tourism networks, visa "fixers" accused of coaching applicants to commit fraud and foreign medical providers involved in such arrangements.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the policy on September 23, saying the measure is aimed at commercial networks that arrange for foreign nationals to travel to the US to give birth primarily to obtain US citizenship for their children.

The department accused such networks of advertising birth-tourism services, coaching applicants to lie on US visa applications and charging tens of thousands of dollars ...