The United States is prepared to revoke up to 200,000 business and tourist visas held by asylum seekers.

This measure is part of Donald Trump's hardening immigration policy. The White House presents it as the largest visa revocation campaign in American history.

The US government indicated Tuesday that it is prepared to revoke the business and tourist visas of up to 200,000 foreign nationals who have applied for asylum in the United States, as part of President Donald Trump's tougher immigration policies. "We are working in coordination with DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreign nationals who came to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but who then file asylum claims to remain here permanently," said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott, confirming earlier press reports.

“Obtaining a visa for the purpose of seeking asylum constitutes fraud, which justifies visa revocation,” he added. The White House cited a figure of 200,000 people affected on Tuesday and referred to it as “the largest visa revocation in the country’s history,” according to a message on X. The State Department emphasized that this would be done “gradually.”

A priority

In early August, the State Department announced that since Donald Trump's return to power in January 2025, some 175,000 foreign nationals in the United States had had their visas revoked for reasons as varied as criminal activity, driving under the influence, or even for "celebrating" the assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk. The US administration also recently revoked the visas of Mexican political figures, including the son of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and current Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, accusing Washington of "interference."

The American president has made combating illegal immigration a priority, carrying out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, but also significantly, sometimes draconianally, restricting the legal entry of foreign nationals, and severely punishing foreigners who overstay their visas in the United States. Several of his flagship measures, however, have been struck down by the courts.

A US federal judge ruled last Friday that the freeze, imposed in January on 75 countries, on visa applications allowing permanent residency in the United States was illegal. The US is also increasingly tightening its visa issuance process, for example by monitoring the social media accounts of foreign applicants. "Having a visa is a privilege, not a right," reiterates US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.