The United States has revoked more than 100,000 visas since President Donald Trump took office on an anti-migrant platform, marking a record for a single year, according to the State Department. The number of revocations since Trump’s second inauguration on January 20, 2025, is two and a half times greater than the total for 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott stated that “the Trump administration has no higher priority than protecting American citizens and upholding American sovereignty.” Many of the revoked visas were said to result from crimes that include instances of assault and drunk driving.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has highlighted his actions in revoking visas from students who protested against Israel, employing a McCarthy-era law that allows the U.S. to block entry to foreigners perceived as opposing U.S. foreign policy. The State Department noted that 8,000 of the revoked visas were for students.
The Trump administration is also tightening visa vetting processes, including increased scrutiny of social media postings by visitors. This campaign of visa revocation is part of a broader strategy of mass deportations, aggressively carried out through increased federal enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security reported that the Trump administration has deported over 605,000 individuals, with an additional 2.5 million leaving voluntarily.
