The Trump administration is preparing to revoke business and tourist visas held by as many as 200,000 people who applied for asylum after entering the U.S. as temporary visitors, a sweeping immigration action that could become the largest mass visa revocation in American history, according to the Associated Press.
The State Department and Department of Homeland Security are coordinating the initiative, which focuses on holders of B1 business and B2 tourism visas whose records indicate they applied for or are pursuing asylum claims dating back to 2016. Two U.S. officials who spoke anonymously said the policy could be announced within weeks, though the final number of revocations remains unsettled.
The initiative would strip affected people of their status as business or tourist visitors, but visa cancellation by itself wouldn't necessarily result in immediate deportation, according to the AP. People already in the U.S. with pending asylum applications could continue pursuing those claims through the immigration system even after their visitor visas are revoked.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott confirmed to the Associated Press that the administration is reviewing cases involving visitors who subsequently sought asylum. "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," Pigott said.
The scale remains fluid. Pigott declined to confirm the 200,000 figure reported by the AP, saying that "as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis."
The initiative represents the latest attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to tighten legal as well as illegal pathways into the U.S. Since Trump returned to the White House, officials have expanded scrutiny of visa applicants, including reviews of social-media activity, while imposing financial bonds in some cases and restricting visas for certain nationalities.
B1 visas generally allow temporary visits for activities such as business meetings, conferences and contract negotiations. B2 visas are commonly used for tourism, family visits and medical treatment, and applicants are generally required to demonstrate that they intend to leave the U.S. after their authorized stay.
The administration argues that filing for asylum after entering as a short-term visitor can indicate that the original representation of temporary intent was misleading. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau framed the issue more broadly in a social-media post Monday.
"People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims," Landau wrote on X. "Asylum isn't supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law."
Landau pointed to a Colombian national who entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in 2015 before later seeking asylum. Administration officials have cited such cases as evidence that visitor visas are being used by some foreign nationals as an entry route before attempts to establish permanent residence.
The proposed policy, however, could raise legal questions because applying for asylum is itself a process authorized under U.S. immigration law. A person's circumstances can also change after obtaining a visa or entering the country, potentially creating a legitimate fear of persecution that wasn't present when the original visitor visa was issued.
The review grew out of information provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services about asylum applications filed by people who initially entered under visitor classifications, according to State Department documents cited in the source article. Officials have been examining B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 to identify potential cases.
The administration has already sharply increased the use of visa revocations. The State Department has canceled about 175,000 visas during the past 18 months, according to the source article, including visas held by people accused or convicted of offenses ranging from drunken driving to robbery, rape and other crimes.
Some revocations have also involved foreign nationals whose public statements criticizing U.S. policies, particularly in the Middle East, drew government scrutiny. Those actions have generated separate legal and civil-liberties disputes over how much authority the executive branch has to use immigration status in response to political activity.
The administration has simultaneously intensified enforcement against so-called birth tourism, in which foreign nationals are accused of traveling to the U.S. primarily to give birth. Those efforts form part of a wider Trump administration campaign to narrow immigration pathways that officials say have been exploited beyond their intended purposes.
A mass cancellation affecting as many as 200,000 B1 and B2 visa holders would dramatically expand that strategy. Unlike targeted revocations tied to criminal conduct or individual security concerns, the new review centers on a common characteristic: entering as a temporary visitor and subsequently seeking asylum.
