These are not the best for times for asylum seekers in the United States (U.S.) following plans by the Donal Trump administration to revoke visas of foreigners who came to the country for tourism or businesses, but chose to stay longer by applying for asylum.
The State Department confirmed the planned crackdown yesterday.
The crackdown marked another step in the Trump administration’s signature drive to reduce immigration into the U.S.
The government has also paused all immigrant visa applications worldwide as the Trump administration moves to tighten restrictions on applicants it considers likely to rely on U.S. public assistance.
A State Department official confirmed the pause on Tuesday, saying the agency launched the initiative at all U.S. embassies and consulates in early August.
The Guardian quoted the official yesterday, saying visa appointments had to be adjusted to accommodate ‘in-depth training’.
The State Department added that the move is ‘to ensure all consular officers are fully equipped to evaluate every visa applicant comprehensively and consistently.’
The administration said it is now working with the Department of Homeland Security to identify and revoke the visas of people who, it said, came to America, billing themselves as temporary visitors but then applied for asylum so they could stay permanently.
‘Obtaining a visa in order to seek asylum is fraud – which is grounds for visa revocation,’ State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott, said in a statement that confirmed press reports about the new policy.
The White House, in a post on X, suggested ‘up to two hundred thousand visas’ would be affected and claimed it would be the ‘largest mass visa revocation in history.’
The State Department neither confirmed nor denied that number.
Pigott said:’The number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis.’
Early this month, the department said that since President Trump returned to power in January 2025, some 175,000 foreigners had seen their U.S. visas revoked on grounds ranging from criminal offenses, including driving under the influence, to praising the killing of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
The administration also recently revoked the visas of Mexican officials, including the son of the former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
This prompted a complaint from the current president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Trump, whose reelection was largely on his promise to fight illegal immigration, has expelled huge numbers of people who were in the country without proper residence papers.