The Trump administration has revoked more than 300,000 US visas during Donald Trump’s second term, the State Department said on Tuesday, announcing the milestone on X as the federal government presses ahead with its sweeping immigration crackdown. The figure shows a sharp acceleration in the pace of visa revocations in recent weeks.
In announcing the number, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the Trump administration “has revoked more visas at a faster pace than any administration in history.” He added: “Let the message be clear: we have zero tolerance for foreigners here on visas who break the law, commit fraud, or undermine our national security. We are taking, and will continue to take, action to keep our borders, and our nation, secure.” The nationalities of those who had their visas revoked was not immediately disclosed.
The trajectory of the visa revocations has steepened dramatically. In an update issued on August 10, the State Department had put the number of revocations since Trump’s current term began in January 2025 at over 175,000; last month the department confirmed the figure had reached 250,000. According to the New York Post, at least 4,000 visas were yanked from foreign nationals who engaged in or facilitated “birth tourism”. A quarter of the visas pulled in 2025 were for assaults or related crimes, while 22 per cent were revoked for driving under the influence, 7 per cent for theft and 7 per cent for substance abuse or distribution.
Visa revocations accelerate in Trump’s second term
The machinery behind the visa revocations has expanded well beyond routine enforcement. The administration has deployed tightened social media screening of immigrants and visa applicants, and officials say revocations follow criminal activity, threats to public safety, or immigration violations such as fraud and misrepresentation. The pace quickened markedly in 2026 after just 23,000 cases were vetted by the Bureau of Consular Affairs last year, reflecting what the State Department describes as a more aggressive posture toward visa holders who break the rules.
Visa revocations target crimes, fraud and dissent
Among the visa revocations most condemned by rights advocates are those of pro-Palestinian foreign protesters who demonstrated against US ally Israel’s attacks on Gaza, and of foreigners over their social media comments about the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. In addition to attempts to deport foreign protesters, the administration’s tightened screening has swept up visa holders for online speech — a practice critics say punishes dissent rather than danger.
The numbers also reveal the administration’s enforcement priorities. While the headline total is dominated by criminal and fraud cases, the inclusion of protesters and social media commenters has blurred the line between public safety and political policing. Immigration lawyers say the surge in visa revocations has created a climate of fear among students and skilled workers, many of whom now scrub their online profiles before travelling. Whether courts push back on the most contentious revocations will determine how far the crackdown can go.
The State Department has not published a country-by-country breakdown of the revocations, and it is unclear how many of those affected were students, tourists or skilled workers. What is clear is that the total will keep climbing: officials say enforcement operations are continuing and updated figures will be released in the coming weeks.
Visa revocations draw rights advocates’ criticism
Rights advocates say the crackdown has violated due process and free speech rights and created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns about racial profiling. They argue the government has deployed national security justifications to target critics and used isolated cases of fraud to broadly target immigrant communities, such as the Somali American community in Minnesota. Trump says the immigration crackdown and deportation drive aim to improve domestic security. With the visa revocations now past 300,000 and the administration vowing more, the clash between those two narratives is set to define the immigration debate for the rest of the term.
Web story: US Revokes Over 300,000 Visas Under Trump