US Targets 200,000 Asylum Seekers in Mass Visa Revocation Plan

The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are seeking asylum status in the United States, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and officials. Expected to be announced in the coming weeks by the State Department in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, the policy targets B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026. Officials noted the action will mark the largest mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and is expected to face legal challenges. The policy specifically targets individuals who entered the country under short-term nonimmigrant status before filing for permanent asylum protection.

"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," said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

Addressing the dynamic scale of the enforcement operation, Pigott noted that the numbers will fluctuate as screening continues. "As the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis," said Pigott.

While the revocations will not lead to immediate deportation, individuals with pending cases will lose their business or tourist traveler status. The screening initiated after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shared asylum data with the State Department, following existing restrictions such as mandatory social media history reviews, expensive visa processing bonds, and targeted country bans.

In the past 18 months, officials have already revoked approximately 175,000 visas over criminal convictions, criminal allegations, or public opposition to U.S. foreign policy. Senior foreign policy leadership publicly criticized foreign nationals using entry visas to establish residence through humanitarian protections.

"People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims," wrote Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on X. Landau pointed to the specific case of a Colombian citizen who entered on a tourist visa in 2015 prior to filing an asylum claim. "Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law," wrote Landau.

In parallel enforcement actions, the State Department established a specialized unit on Aug. 12, 2026, aimed at dismantling international travel schemes designed to obtain automatic citizenship for newborns.

"The first step in that is identifying them," said Pigott. The department is deploying international resources to uncover coordinate operations targeting commercial birth travel networks. "We have consular officers around the world that work with international partners, that work for law enforcement officials to identify patterns that indicate a birth tourism network, and then when that is identified, we take actions such as revoking their visas, which was the recent announcement that we made, to make sure that we're dismantling those networks," said Pigott.

Executive leadership framed the crackdown as a response to commercialized exploitation of legal citizenship provisions.

"We're making adjustments because it's very unfair," said President Donald Trump. Trump emphasized that commercial entities have built enterprises around constitutional provisions.

"They're building businesses around birthright citizenship. That's not the way it was supposed to work. It's a disgrace.

They're buying their way in, and we're not going to let it happen," said Trump. The newly formed Birth Tourism and Prevention Task Force has revoked over 750 visas linked to fraudulent travel patterns, including cases where pregnant travelers were accompanied during late-stage pregnancy under the guise of short vacations. Pigott detailed commercial advertisements falsely offering healthcare while promising automatic citizenship, leading to unpaid medical liabilities absorbed by taxpayers.

"That was an indication that this was actually a birth tourism effort here, and we were able to take action to revoke those visas," said Pigott. Pigott emphasized that the real-time analytical monitoring allows federal agents to rapidly revoke suspect nonimmigrant entries. "So we're able to analyze those travel patterns, analyze those instances that indicate fraud, look into those, and the task force we have allows us to take that action," said Pigott.

Addressing promotional tactics used by travel facilitators, Pigott cited examples of public misrepresentation.

"There were some advertisements that were being published talking about a world without borders or automatic guaranteed citizenship in their advertisements while they were pretending to offer health care services," said Pigott. Pigott explained how domestic birth networks facilitate financial evasion after entry. "In reality, that is fraud, and the fraud actually doesn't just end when it has to do with the birth tourism example of lying to the consular officer," said Pigott.

Pigott added that unpaid medical bills from foreign births create public costs.

"These networks are set up in the United States and then further coach these individuals on how to not pay their medical bills," said Pigott. Pigott reaffirmed federal intent to preserve legal entry protocols.

"So you have fraud when you enter the United States and then the American taxpayer is left footing the bill. It comes down to the fundamental principle: we're gonna protect the sacred privilege of American citizenship and not allow this fraud to happen," said Pigott.