The State Department says more than 250,000 U.S. visas have been revoked since President Donald Trump returned to office, as the administration expands continuous screening, targets fraud and criminal conduct, and separately tightens rules governing employment-based visas.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The State Department has revoked more than 250,000 visas since President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025, marking a sharp increase in enforcement as federal officials broaden screening of foreign nationals after visas have already been issued.
The department said revocations have involved criminal conduct, public-safety concerns, immigration violations, fraud, misrepresentation, terrorism-related issues and other information indicating that a visa holder no longer qualifies for entry. The total was reported this week as the administration described the effort as part of a larger shift toward continuous vetting rather than limiting scrutiny primarily to the original application process.
“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,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
“A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right—and if you violate the terms of that privilege, you will lose it.”
The State Department also publicized the enforcement total through an official social-media post, framing visa security as an extension of border security.
The scale of the current campaign is notable when compared with earlier periods. An estimate cited in legal scholarship placed total State Department visa revocations between 2001 and 2015 at approximately 122,000. On that basis, the more than 250,000 revocations reported during Trump’s second term exceed the estimated 15-year total by more than twofold.
ady been upheld by a federal appeals court. The administration has separately pursued a regulatory route that could establish a permanent fee exceeding $100,000.
Before the new policy, typical H-1B filing costs were generally in the range of several thousand dollars, depending on the employer and petition. Trump said when announcing the change that the program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.” The White House has continued to defend that position while employers, universities and business groups have argued that H-1B workers fill specialized positions for which qualified labor can be difficult to recruit domestically.
Indian technology companies have been particularly exposed to changes in the program. Press Insider reported that Republican proposals in Congress could significantly alter a business model long used by Indian IT outsourcing companies.
“Indian nationals are among the biggest users of the H-1B route, and the program has been central to the operating model of Indian IT outsourcers, which use it to place engineers, consultants and project managers at client locations in the US.”
Press Insider reported that India’s six largest IT services companies received 11,041 H-1B approvals as of March 31, down 40% from 18,469 a year earlier. The companies identified were Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Cognizant Technology Solutions, HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra.
Congressional Republicans have introduced several competing proposals to reshape the program. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., introduced the End H-1B Now Act in January to phase out the program with a limited medical-worker exception. Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., introduced the End H-1B Visa Abuse Act in April with seven Republican co-sponsors, proposing a multiyear pause followed by tighter caps and wage rules. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, followed in June with legislation that would replace the lottery with a wage-based system, require employers to demonstrate efforts to hire Americans and restrict H-1B hiring by companies that recently laid off U.S. workers. A Senate version of the Crane proposal was introduced in July by Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont.
Florida has moved separately against new H-1B hiring at its public universities. Following Gov. Ron DeSantis’ directive to review what he characterized as abuse of the program, the Florida Board of Governors voted in March to prohibit the state’s 12 public universities from hiring new employees requiring immediate H-1B sponsorship through Jan. 5, 2027. Existing H-1B employees are not covered by the moratorium and can continue to receive qualifying extensions.
More than 600 H-1B beneficiaries had been approved through Florida’s public universities during the preceding year, according to USCIS data cited by Reuters. DeSantis has argued that taxpayer-supported institutions should give greater priority to qualified American applicants, while critics of the pause have warned that restricting H-1B recruitment could make it harder for universities to hire faculty, researchers, physicians and specialists in fields with limited domestic applicant pools.
The employment-visa changes remain separate from the State Department’s 250,000-plus visa revocation total, but together they illustrate the breadth of the administration’s second-term immigration strategy.
Rather than concentrating exclusively on illegal border crossings, Trump officials have increasingly focused on people who entered or seek to enter through legal visa programs, using post-issuance screening, criminal-record checks, fraud investigations, new eligibility standards and restrictions on employment visas.
The more than 250,000 revocations represent the clearest numerical measure yet of that effort. The H-1B restrictions, meanwhile, remain a developing policy and legal battle, with the administration seeking tighter controls even as federal courts review whether its most consequential fee changes can lawfully be imposed without additional congressional or regulatory action.
Original article
Comments