The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who entered the U.S. on short-term business or tourism visas and later applied for asylum, in what officials describe as the largest mass visa revocation in American history.
Who’s Affected
The action targets B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 to people who later filed for asylum, according to a State Department spokesperson coordinating the effort with the Department of Homeland Security. The spokesperson said the goal is to address people who “came to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently.”
How It Would Work
The State Department is expected to formally announce the action in the coming weeks, and the revocations would happen on a rolling basis rather than all at once. Losing B1/B2 status would not automatically trigger deportation; people with pending asylum cases would generally be reclassified rather than immediately removed, though they would lose their standing as short-term visitors.
Expected Legal Fights
The scale of the plan, and the fact that it targets people who are using a legal process, filing for asylum, that Congress created, makes legal challenges likely once the State Department formally announces the policy. For now, the administration has not released a specific timeline or detailed criteria for how individual cases will be selected for revocation.
