State Department Says It Has Revoked More Than 250,000 Visas

The State Department has revoked more than 250,000 visas since President Donald Trump took office, spokesman Tommy Pigott said, a figure the department is treating as a running total of continuous vetting rather than a single cancellation wave.

A department official told Fox News Digital the revocations cover visa holders who violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against the United States or Americans, defrauded Americans, abused the immigration system, or endangered national security. About 2,300 of the cancellations are connected to birth tourism, the practice of pregnant foreign nationals traveling to the United States to give birth so the child receives citizenship.

“Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio, the State Department has now revoked more than 250,000 visas — a historic milestone that reflects our unwavering commitment to protecting the American people,” Pigott said. “Every visa decision is a national security decision. Through continuous vetting on a scale never seen before, we are identifying and removing those who commit crimes, support terrorism, defraud Americans, or abuse our immigration system. A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right — and if you violate the terms of that privilege, you will lose it.”

On Monday the department revoked the visas of 27 Latin American officials, former officials, and their family members over corruption accusations. Those officials are from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

The 250,000 figure sits above an August count in which the department said it had already yanked more than 175,000 visas. Most of that earlier set followed law-enforcement encounters. Assault, driving under the influence, theft, and drug crimes led the list. A significant share involved reckless driving, sexual assault, child abuse, fraud, and embezzlement.

Over the summer the administration also prepared to revoke business and tourist visas held by as many as 200,000 foreigners who applied for asylum after receiving B1 or B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said at the time that Americans were “fed up” with “bogus asylum claims,” and that asylum is “supposed to provide a narrow safe harbor” for people persecuted for race, religion, nationality, social-group membership, or political opinion, not a loophole around immigration law.

Secretary Marco Rubio announced a separate visa-restriction policy on Sept. 24 aimed at operators, fixers, and facilitators of commercial birth tourism. The 2,300 birth-tourism revocations in the new total are cancellations of visas already issued, not the operator ban. Pigott sat down at the White House with Fox News Digital to discuss the crackdown, including the birth-tourism cases.