US plans to revoke visas of up to 200 000 asylum applicants
The Trump administration is opening a new front in its immigration crackdown, this time targeting people who entered the United States legally.
According to credible reports, the State Department is preparing to revoke the business and tourist visas of as many as 200,000 foreign nationals who entered the country on temporary visas and later applied for asylum.
The administration says the visa system is being misused to stay in America permanently.
The people affected by this new proposal entered the United States legally on B-1 business or B-2 tourist visas – visas intended for temporary stays.
But the Trump administration says some then used the system to remain in the country by filing asylum claims.
The State Department is now preparing to revoke those visas on a rolling basis, potentially affecting up to 200,000 people.
The administration says the final number could change.
Importantly, visa revocation does not automatically mean immediate deportation.
People with pending asylum cases could theoretically remain in the United States while those cases proceeded, but they would no longer hold their original visitor status.
For the Trump administration, the policy is part of a much broader effort to tighten immigration controls and reduce what it describes as an abuse of the legal immigration system.
For foreigners, the implications are significant – people being targeted were not necessarily among those who crossed the U.S. border illegally; they were admitted by the United States under visas that were legally issued, but the administration is now arguing that what happened after their arrival could justify taking those visas away.
And at a potential scale of 200,000 people, the move could become one of the largest mass visa-revocation actions in US history.
It represents another major expansion of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown – from the border, to asylum, and now to the legal visa system itself.
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