The United States has revoked more than 175,000 visas since President Donald Trump returned to office, the State Department has said. The announcement on August 10 covered the period since his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
The department said the holders had breached the terms of their visas, committed crimes, called for violence against Americans, defrauded them, abused the immigration system or endangered national security.
Most of the revocations followed encounters with law enforcement. Assault, drink-driving, theft and drug offences were the leading causes.
A further tranche was withdrawn over reckless driving, sexual assault, child abuse, fraud and embezzlement. The department cited one foreign national charged with kidnapping, human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of a minor.
It also said a US embassy in North Africa had cancelled more than 100 visas held by parents who had travelled to America to give birth so that their children would acquire citizenship.
“A US visa is a privilege, not a right,” the department said.
The pace has quickened. The running total stood at about 80,000 in November 2025 and passed 100,000 in January, a rise the department put at 150 per cent on the previous year.
That January figure included some 8,000 student visas and 2,500 specialised worker visas. State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott said overstays, drink-driving, assault and theft were the main grounds.
The campaign has reached European officials as well as ordinary travellers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in May 2025 that Washington would restrict visas for foreigners it judged complicit in censoring Americans, and US officials later warned Irish regulators over their handling of online speech.
In December 2025 Rubio barred five Europeans from the country, among them Thierry Breton, the former European commissioner who drafted the Digital Services Act (DSA). Rubio described those named as agents of a global censorship industry aimed at American speakers and American companies.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot condemned the bans as political retaliation, with Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom backing Paris. Breton countered that all 27 member states had voted for the DSA in 2022.
The State Department has since set up a Continuous Vetting Center to monitor foreign nationals on American soil. It announced in August 2025 that it would review the roughly 55 million people who hold valid US visas.
