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State Department moves to revoke visas
August 25, 2026
The State Department is preparing to revoke B1 and B2 business and tourism visas issued between 2016 and 2026 to holders who have applied for asylum.
The Guardian reports a plan at the State Department to cancel the short-stay B1 and B2 categories held by people who filed, or are now filing, for protection in the country, covering documents issued across a decade-long window from 2016 to 2026. A department spokesperson, quoted by The Guardian, describes joint work with the Department of Homeland Security “to identify and revoke the non-immigrant 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”. NPR reports the same preparation from Washington and sets the ceiling at 200,000 people. The New York Times carries the event under a title fixing that same ceiling and the same group of travelers.
On consequence, the two accounts line up. Neither treats cancellation as removal: The Guardian and NPR each report that losing the document does not by itself put anyone on a plane, and that pending protection claims would simply be filed under a different category once visitor status lapses. Both also place the operation, at that size, above anything the country has done before in a single stroke, and NPR expects courts to be asked to look at it. Al Jazeera frames the event around who stands to be caught by what it calls the largest planned mass visa cancellation. NPR traces how the vetting started: Citizenship and Immigration Services passed word of protection filings to the State Department, and reviews of existing short-stay holders followed. NPR also quotes Landau on X: “People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims,” and “Asylum isn't supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.”
What the government intends to do, and under which visa categories, is corroborated. How far it goes is open. NPR reports Landau refusing to put a figure on the eventual total, saying “as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis.” The Guardian likewise reports no departmental figure for the eventual total, alongside a departmental statement earlier this month counting more than 175,000 cancellations of foreign nationals' visas so far under this administration.
Still developing
The final number of revocations is unstated by the State Department, which describes the process as rolling and ongoing. The legal challenges NPR reports as likely have no filings, courts, or timing attached to them in the record.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- The Guardian — Trump administration plans to revoke 200,000 visas of asylum seekers
- NPR — U.S. set for largest mass visa revocation in history, up to 200,000 foreigners, officials say
- Al Jazeera — Trump plans largest mass visa cancellation in history: Who will it affect?