The US Division of State has canceled greater than 175,000 visas since Donald Trump returned to workplace, quadrupling the tempo of revocations underneath Joe Biden’s ultimate yr within the White Home, in keeping with a brand new tally launched by the division this week.
The announcement mentioned the revocations focused overseas nationals who allegedly broke the phrases of their visas, dedicated crimes, known as for violence towards People, defrauded US residents, abused the immigration system or endangered nationwide safety. Many adopted run-ins with legislation enforcement, the division mentioned, with assault, drunk driving, theft and drug offenses the main causes, alongside reckless driving, sexual assault, youngster abuse and fraud.
The state division revealed some anecdotal instances to bolster its revocation marketing campaign . They included a person charged with felony rape and sexual battery of a sufferer with a psychological incapacity, and one other accused of kidnapping, trafficking and sexually exploiting a minor. Additionally cited have been a person arrested on fees together with drunk driving and home violence, and one other accused of driving with heroin in his system whereas greater than thrice over the authorized blood alcohol restrict.
Biden’s state division revoked about 40,000 visas in 2024. Trump’s administration cancelled greater than 100,000 in 2025 alone, and the month-to-month tempo has saved climbing this yr, from roughly 8,000 revocations a month in 2025 to greater than 10,000 a month in 2026. The division has not mentioned how the 175,000 determine breaks down by class, leaving unclear what number of revocations stem from severe crimes versus lesser infractions equivalent to overstaying a visa.
A number of revocations touched on political speech. The most effective-known case is that of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral scholar at Tufts College whose visa was pulled after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing the college’s stance on the struggle in Gaza. She was detained by immigration authorities, although a decide later dismissed the case towards her, and has since moved again to Turkey.
However the division mentioned it had canceled the visas of a number of overseas nationals who commented on the killing of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk final September, together with one who mentioned Kirk had “died too late”.
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, has additionally decided that numerous overseas nationals are deportable on overseas coverage grounds, the division mentioned, naming a Cuban nationwide linked to an affect marketing campaign tied to Havana, Iranian nationals related to Tehran’s authorities and a Kuwaiti nationwide accused of voicing hostility towards the US president.
Officers mentioned a US embassy in north Africa had cancelled greater than 100 visas held by dad and mom accused of travelling to the US primarily so their youngsters can be born Americans. Trump has individually sought to limit the apply by means of an government order that’s being challenged in court docket after a supreme court docket setback.
One case cited by the division concerned a Laotian nationwide, Tou Lue Vang, who was deported final month. Vang had been pardoned weeks earlier by the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, over a 2005 conviction for sexually abusing a baby.
A spokesperson for the state division declined to share the specific explanation why visas have been revoked, together with what number of have been revoked for making a joke about Kirk’s killing, however informed the Guardian it “revokes visas any time there are indications of a possible ineligibility, potential risk to public security, or in different conditions the place warranted.
“Explicitly threatening the lifetime of the president of the USA and brazenly declaring the American folks to be one’s enemy are essentially incompatible with US nationwide pursuits,” the spokesperson informed the Guardian. “Such conduct constitutes a severe nationwide safety concern and warrants fast reconsideration of visa eligibility.”
In March final yr, the Guardian obtained a state division cable ordering consular officers to increase screening of scholar visa candidates, together with vetting their social media exercise, to bar anybody deemed to be engaged in what it known as terrorist exercise, a class many learn as aimed squarely at supporters of Palestinian causes.
The sample has continued into this yr: candidates for short-term visas worldwide are actually required to affirm they haven’t skilled hurt and don’t worry returning residence, underneath a separate state division cable obtained by the Guardian. Answering sure, or declining to reply, sharply will increase the chances of denial, a screening step critics say may filter out home abuse survivors, threatened journalists and persecuted minorities earlier than they ever attain US soil.
Visa cancellations are separate from deportations, which fall to the Division of Homeland Safety. That company has mentioned greater than 605,000 folks have been faraway from the nation since Trump took workplace, a part of what the administration calls the most important deportation operation in US historical past.
Some immigration legislation specialists have argued that the revocations are a part of a broader effort to shrink authorized immigration, all whereas offering as little info as attainable.
“The Division of State’s assertion lumps overseas coverage instances along with DUI arrests and folks’s political speech, making the headline quantity virtually meaningless,” American Immigration Council’s senior coverage counsel, Adriel D Orozco, mentioned, “and raises severe questions on how a lot discretion the administration is exercising with out significant accountability.”
The division described the revocations because the product of a steady vetting system launched final yr, which screens roughly 55 million overseas nationals holding legitimate US visas for indicators they not meet the circumstances of their standing.
“A US visa is a privilege, not a proper,” the division mentioned within the press launch.