The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum in the United States, a move that would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history if it goes forward.
Who Gets Hit First
State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two U.S. officials say the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum. The action would be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security. That means the machinery of the state is lining up to strip travel status from people who entered under one set of rules and are now being recast as targets.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said, "We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently." He declined to comment on the number of visas that might be revoked, saying, "as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis."
The revocations would not necessarily result in immediate deportation, the officials said. Most of those with asylum cases currently pending would be recategorized but would lose their status as business or tourism travelers, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the revocations are not final yet. Paperwork first. Punishment later. The apparatus likes its cruelty in stages.
The Bureaucracy Tightens the Noose
Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term last year, his administration has steadily ramped up restrictions on visa applicants, demanding more information about their social media histories, requiring the posting of expensive bonds for visa processing and outright banning the issuance of visas to citizens of certain countries. The pattern is plain: more surveillance, more fees, more exclusion, all dressed up as administration.
In a social media post on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called out people who he said try to use tourist and business visas to get into the United States and then apply for asylum. Landau wrote on X, "People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims. Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law." He cited the case of a Colombian citizen who came to the U.S. in 2015 on a tourist visa and then applied for asylum.
B1 visas are generally issued for business trips and B2 visas are generally issued for tourism, family visits or medical care. It was not immediately clear from the documents or the officials how many of these visa holders are seeking or have sought asylum in the United States and would be affected by the revocations. Current applicants for B1 and B2 visas are asked to affirm that they will not apply for asylum in the United States and prove that they intend to return to their home countries.
That’s the gatekeeping logic in full view. People must promise obedience before they’re allowed through, then prove they’ll leave when the state says so.
What the State Has Already Done
In the past 18 months, the State Department has revoked about 175,000 visas for people who have been convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunken driving to rape and robbery, as well as for people who have spoken out publicly against U.S. policies, particularly in the Middle East. The same system that claims to sort out “security” also punishes speech. It doesn’t just police borders; it polices dissent.
The administration has also moved to crack down on so-called birth tourism, a practice the administration claims is used by foreign pregnant women to come to the United States to give birth so that their child will benefit from birthright citizenship. Trump has tried several times to end birthright citizenship, but those challenges have been rejected by courts, including the Supreme Court. The courts have stepped in here, but only to manage the edges of the same order, not to dismantle the border regime that keeps people sorted and controlled.
The State Department documents obtained by the AP suggest screening of current B1 and B2 visa holders began after the State Department received information about asylum requests from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That’s the trail of the decision: one arm of the state feeds another, and the people caught in the middle are the ones who pay.
The revocation plan, if carried out, would hit people already trapped in the asylum process and strip away the travel status they were granted in the first place. The officials said the move would not necessarily mean immediate deportation, but it would still mark a sweeping escalation in the government’s campaign to narrow who gets to enter, stay, and speak.
No mutual aid network or grassroots response appears in the documents. What does appear is a coordinated administrative dragnet, built from visa rules, social media screening, bonds, bans, and rolling revocations. Clean language. Dirty power.