The US Department of State has canceled more than ۱۷۵,۰۰۰ visas since Donald Trump returned to office, quadrupling the pace of revocations under Joe Biden’s final year in the White House, according to a new tally released by the department this week.
The announcement said the revocations targeted foreign nationals who allegedly broke the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against Americans, defrauded US citizens, abused the immigration system or endangered national security. Many followed run-ins with law enforcement, the department said, with assault, drunk driving, theft and drug offenses the leading causes, alongside reckless driving, sexual assault, child abuse and fraud.
The state department published some anecdotal cases to bolster its revocation campaign . They included a man charged with felony rape and sexual battery of a victim with a mental disability, and another accused of kidnapping, trafficking and sexually exploiting a minor. Also cited were a man arrested on charges including drunk driving and domestic violence, and another accused of driving with heroin in his system while more than three times over the legal blood alcohol limit.
Biden’s state department revoked about ۴۰,۰۰۰ visas in ۲۰۲۴. Trump’s administration cancelled more than ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ in ۲۰۲۵ alone, and the monthly pace has kept climbing this year, from roughly ۸,۰۰۰ revocations a month in ۲۰۲۵ to more than ۱۰,۰۰۰ a month in ۲۰۲۶. The department has not said how the ۱۷۵,۰۰۰ figure breaks down by category, leaving unclear how many revocations stem from serious crimes as opposed to lesser infractions such as overstaying a visa.
Several revocations touched on political speech. The best-known case is that of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University whose visa was pulled after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing the university’s stance on the war in Gaza. She was detained by immigration authorities, though a judge later dismissed the case against her, and has since moved back to Turkey.
But the department said it had canceled the visas of multiple foreign nationals who commented on the killing of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk last September, including one who said Kirk had “died too late”.
Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, has also determined that a number of foreign nationals are deportable on foreign policy grounds, the department said, naming a Cuban national linked to an influence campaign tied to Havana, Iranian nationals connected to Tehran’s government and a Kuwaiti national accused of voicing hostility toward the US president.
Officials said a US embassy in north Africa had cancelled more than ۱۰۰ visas held by parents accused of travelling to the US mainly so their children would be born American citizens. Trump has separately sought to restrict the practice through an executive order that is being challenged in court after a supreme court setback.
One case cited by the department involved a Laotian national, Tou Lue Vang, who was deported last month. Vang had been pardoned weeks earlier by the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, over a ۲۰۰۵ conviction for sexually abusing a child.
A spokesperson for the state department declined to share the categorical reasons why visas were revoked, including how many were revoked for making a joke about Kirk’s killing, but told the Guardian it “revokes visas any time there are indications of a potential ineligibility, potential threat to public safety, or in other situations where warranted.
“Explicitly threatening the life of the president of the United States and openly declaring the American people to be one’s enemy are fundamentally incompatible with US national interests,” the spokesperson told the Guardian. “Such conduct constitutes a serious national security concern and warrants immediate reconsideration of visa eligibility.”
In March last year, the Guardian obtained a state department cable ordering consular officers to expand screening of student visa applicants, including vetting their social media activity, to bar anyone deemed to be engaged in what it called terrorist activity, a category many read as aimed squarely at supporters of Palestinian causes.
The pattern has continued into this year: applicants for temporary visas worldwide are now required to affirm they have not experienced harm and do not fear returning home, under a separate state department cable obtained by the Guardian. Answering yes, or declining to answer, sharply increases the odds of denial, a screening step critics say could filter out domestic abuse survivors, threatened journalists and persecuted minorities before they ever reach US soil.
Visa cancellations are separate from deportations, which fall to the Department of Homeland Security. That agency has said more than ۶۰۵,۰۰۰ people have been removed from the country since Trump took office, part of what the administration calls the largest deportation operation in US history.
Some immigration law experts have argued that the revocations are part of a broader effort to shrink legal immigration, all while providing as little information as possible.
“The Department of State’s statement lumps foreign policy cases together with DUI arrests and people’s political speech, making the headline number almost meaningless,” American Immigration Council’s senior policy counsel, Adriel D Orozco, said, “and raises serious questions about how much discretion the administration is exercising without meaningful accountability.”
The department described the revocations as the product of a continuous vetting system introduced last year, which screens roughly ۵۵ million foreign nationals holding valid US visas for signs they no longer meet the conditions of their status.
“A US visa is a privilege, not a right,” the department said in the press release.
