The Trump administration is preparing what would be the largest single mass visa revocation in U.S. history: pulling the business and tourist visas of foreigners who entered the country as short-term visitors and then applied for asylum. Associated Press reporting, based on State Department documents and two U.S. officials, puts the potential tally at up to 200,000 people. The State Department would not confirm that figure. Spokesman Tommy Pigott said the count will stay “dynamic” because the revocations are meant to roll out over time, not in one sweep.
The target is B-1 and B-2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are seeking it now. Those visas are for business trips, tourism, family visits, and medical care. Applicants already have to say they intend to go home and, more recently, that they will not apply for asylum. Pigott’s line is blunt: coming in as a visitor and then filing for asylum is, in the department’s view, fraud, and fraud is grounds to cancel a visa. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau made the same argument on social media Monday, calling asylum a “loophole” when it is used this way.
Revoking the visa is not the same as putting someone on a plane. Officials told AP that most people with pending asylum cases would be recategorized and lose their status as business or tourist travelers, but would not necessarily be deported on the spot. Immigration lawyers CNN spoke with said those people would, at a minimum, still be entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge. Their legal footing would rest entirely on the asylum claim. If that claim later fails, there would be no visitor visa left to fall back on.
The State Department is expected to announce the move in the coming weeks unless a court or a policy change gets in the way. It will work with the Department of Homeland Security to match visa records against asylum filings from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That data-matching job is large, and legal challenges are widely expected. Unlike more than 175,000 visa cancellations the department has already logged since Trump returned to office — a tally it publicized earlier this month — this round is aimed at people who have not been accused of a crime.
It fits a second-term pattern: tighter screening at consulates, bonds, country-based visa pauses (one of which a federal judge struck down last week), and a long fight over birthright citizenship that the Supreme Court has already undercut. For governments whose citizens use B visas to reach the United States, the practical question is who gets caught in the net. The department has not published a nationality breakdown. Analysts note that many recent asylum claims come through the border, not through tourist stamps, so the people hit hardest may not match the overall asylum caseload.