The U.S. State Department announced Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas from foreign nationals since President Donald Trump returned to office, marking a significant escalation in the administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement campaign.
According to a fact sheet released by the department, the revocations targeted foreign nationals who “violated the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against U.S. citizens, defrauded Americans, abused our immigration system, or endangered national security.
The State Department said most of the revocations stemmed from law-enforcement encounters involving a range of criminal conduct. “The majority of these visas were revoked due to law enforcement encounters for a range of criminal activity, with assault, driving under the influence, theft, and drug crimes being the leading causes,” the department said in its statement. “A significant share of visas were revoked for reckless driving, sexual assault, child abuse, fraud and embezzlement, and other crimes.”
Among the specific cases cited by the department were a person charged with felony rape and sexual battery, another charged with kidnapping and human trafficking, and an individual facing more than a dozen counts of possessing child sexual abuse material.
The department also pointed to national-security-related cases, including multiple foreign nationals it said had celebrated the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk among them one individual who reportedly stated “when fascists die, democrats don’t complain” and another who said he “died too late.” Kirk was assassinated last year.
In one case, a U.S. embassy in North Africa revoked more than 100 visas from parents accused of engaging in “birth tourism”, travelling to the United States primarily to give birth so their children would obtain U.S. citizenship.
The 175,000 figure represents a dramatic increase compared to enforcement levels under the previous administration. According to State Department data, roughly 40,000 visas were revoked during President Joe Biden’s final full year in office in 2024 less than half the 100,000 revocations recorded during Trump’s first year back in office, a figure the administration described as a record at the time.
The pace of revocations has since accelerated further. Reports indicate the rate rose to more than 10,000 cancellations per month in 2026, up from roughly 8,000 per month over the course of 2025. With more than 75,000 additional revocations reported so far this year alone, the annual total for 2026 could surpass previous years.
Officials have defended the crackdown as a matter of public safety and national security. “Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio’s leadership, the State Department will continue to identify, investigate, and revoke the visas of foreign nationals who threaten the safety of the American people,” the department said. “A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right.”
The visa revocations form part of a broader immigration enforcement push since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, which has included an unprecedented pace of deportations some involving individuals who held valid visas alongside tightened screening measures such as expanded social-media vetting for visa applicants and holders. In January 2026, the administration separately announced new visa-issuance restrictions affecting nationals from dozens of countries, though those measures applied to new applications rather than revoking visas already granted.
The scale and basis of the revocations have drawn scrutiny from some immigration attorneys, who have raised concerns that the administration may be canceling visas based on law-enforcement encounters or charges that never proceeded through the judicial process, rather than convictions. Critics argue this approach risks penalizing individuals for allegations alone.
The State Department has not detailed what proportion of the revocations involved formal convictions versus arrests, charges, or other law-enforcement contacts.
The administration has signaled it intends to continue and potentially expand the scope of its visa-vetting and revocation efforts in the months ahead.
