Trump Administration Says It Has Revoked More Than 300,000 Visas

The Trump administration has revoked more than 300,000 United States visas since President Donald Trump began his second term in January 2025, the State Department said on Tuesday, October 20.

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott announced the figure on X. He said the administration "has revoked more visas at a faster pace than any administration in history" and has "zero tolerance for foreigners here on visas who break the law, commit fraud, or undermine our national security."

How the number climbed

The total has risen fast in recent weeks. In an update issued on August 10, the State Department put revocations since January 2025 at more than 175,000. Last month the department confirmed as many as 250,000 revocations. The new figure passes 300,000, and the department gave no breakdown by nationality or by visa class.

Pigott added: "We are taking, and will continue to take, action to keep our borders, and our nation, secure."

What officials say drove the revocations

A State Department official said most revocations followed criminal activity, threats to public safety, or immigration violations such as fraud or misrepresentation, or other information suggesting the holders were no longer eligible to keep their visas.

At least 4,000 visas were taken from foreign nationals who engaged in or facilitated birth tourism, the official said.

For cases pulled in 2025, the official gave a breakdown by reason. Assault and related crimes accounted for 25 percent. Driving under the influence accounted for 22 percent. Theft accounted for 7 percent, and substance abuse or distribution accounted for 7 percent.

Trump says the immigration crackdown and deportation drive aim to improve domestic security.

Critics push back

Rights advocates say the crackdown has violated due process and free speech rights and has created an unsafe environment, in particular for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns about racial profiling.

Advocates have pointed to revocations condemned in particular: those of pro-Palestinian foreign protesters demonstrating against Israel's attacks on Gaza, and those of foreigners targeted over social media comments about the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.

The administration has also tightened social media screening of immigrants and visa applicants, and it has made legal immigration harder in other ways, for example by imposing expensive fees for certain work visas. Rights advocates say the government has used national security reasons to target critics and isolated fraud cases to target immigrant communities such as the Somali American community in Minnesota.