US plan could revoke up to 200,000 visas held by asylum claimants
Most affected visa holders with pending asylum cases would be reclassified and lose their business or tourism status without necessarily facing immediate deportation.
- The US government is planning to revoke up to 200,000 business (B-1) and tourism (B-2) visas.
- This plan targets foreign nationals who entered the country on these non-immigrant visas and subsequently applied for asylum.
- The Trump administration's stated goal is to identify foreigners who allegedly used short-term visitor status as a means to stay in the US permanently.
- Losing a visa under this plan would not necessarily result in immediate deportation for those with pending asylum cases.
Up to 200,000 business and tourism visas could be withdrawn from foreign nationals who have applied for asylum or are pursuing claims in the United States, according to the Associated Press (AP).
If the upper estimate is realised, no previous single US visa revocation would have involved as many people.
AP said its estimate came from State Department documents and two US officials.
The department did not disclose how many visas it expected to cancel.
Covered by the proposed cancellations are B-1 and B-2 non-immigrant visas granted between 2016 and 2026 to people who subsequently sought asylum or are seeking it now, AP reported.
The two categories are used for business and tourism travel.
Most people awaiting decisions on their asylum cases would be moved into another category and cease to hold business or tourism traveller status.
AP said the loss of a visa would not necessarily bring immediate deportation.
The plan, announced by President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday (August 24), is the latest element of its broader immigration crackdown.
A State Department spokesman said it was coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security “to identify and revoke the non-immigrant 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.”
Earlier that day, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau alleged on X that the American immigration system “has long been swamped by frivolous asylum claims”.
The State Department had also reported earlier in the month that more than 175,000 visas belonging to foreign nationals had been revoked under the Trump administration.
Despite Trump’s 2024 campaign focus on stopping illegal immigration, legal routes have also become harder under his administration.
One example is the introduction of new and expensive fees for people applying for certain work visas.
Elsewhere in the administration’s immigration push, visas and green cards have been revoked, and deportations pursued aggressively.
Trump says the purpose is to improve domestic security.
Alleged breaches of free speech and due process are among the objections raised by rights organisations.
They also describe an unsafe environment for ethnic minorities, whose concerns include racial profiling.
The crackdown has faced legal challenges.
Source: Reuters
