At least 100,000 foreign national visas revoked since Trump took office
The US State Department said it had revoked more than 100,000 visas since President Donald Trump took office almost a year ago.
In an announcement across its social media platforms on Monday, the State Department said it “has now revoked over 100,000 visas, including some 8,000 student visas and 2,500 specialized visas for individuals who had encounters with US law enforcement for criminal activity.
“We will continue to deport these thugs to keep America safe," the department added.
During a speech on Tuesday at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump doubled down on his policies and said that any naturalised citizens convicted of defrauding "our citizens" would have their citizenships revoked, and would include Somali citizens or people from "anywhere else".
On 8 December, CNN reported that the State Department had revoked 85,000 visas, meaning that 15,000 visas have been revoked in just over a month.
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The targeting of both legal and illegal immigrants has been a defining policy of Trump’s second term in office. This has manifested in the administration rounding up and deporting illegal immigrants, cancelling visas of legal immigrants, and introducing tighter regulations and more extensive vetting for granting US visas.
The issue has become a national lightning rod after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a US citizen and mother of three, during a crackdown on immigrants in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 7 January.
Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson at the US State Department, said in a statement to Middle East Eye that the administration had revoked visas from thousands of foreign nationals charged or convicted of crimes, including assault, theft, and driving under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicants.
Pigott also said the State Department had recently launched the "Continuous Vetting Center", which works “to ensure that all foreign nationals on American soil comply with our laws - and that the visas of those who pose a threat to American citizens are swiftly revoked”.
Under the vetting centre, all 55 million people with valid visas to visit, live in or work in the US are subject to review, including scrutiny of their social media posts and potential deportation for violations.
While the expansion of “continuous vetting” marks an escalation in the surveillance of legal immigrants, some legal experts believe that there are limitations to technological systems for surveying so many people.
Students and immigrants
Some of the international students who have had their visas revoked have been targeted for their campus activism on issues such as Israel’s war on Gaza, which has been recognised as a genocide by the United Nations, human rights scholars and global organisations.
An executive order signed on 29 January said such “alien students” were seen as antisemitic, and if warranted, actions would be taken to “remove such aliens".
International students who were targeted for deportation for their pro-Palestine activism include Ranjani Srinivasan and Rumeysa Ozturk, as well as students who were permanent legal residents, such as Mahmoud Khalil.
Critics have said that being deported for expressing one’s opinion is a violation of the US First Amendment, and many of the students who were targeted for their pro-Palestinian activism have been successful in fighting against it.
However, it is not just foreign nationals in the country who are being targeted. Since June, prospective student visa applicants have faced increased scrutiny of their political views.
The US government plans to increase vetting of H1-B visa holders, reinterview those who were granted admission to the US as refugees under the Biden administration, and increase the list of countries facing a full or partial travel ban.
The administration has also increased H-1B visa fees to make them less attractive to foreign nationals seeking to work in the US.
Trump has also implemented a second, more refined version of the so-called "Muslim ban" and has drastically reduced refugee admissions to the country. The total number of restricted nations is now up to 39.
The administration has also attempted to remove temporary protected status (TPS) for citizens of foreign countries who had been granted temporary leave to remain due to civil war or natural disasters, with Afghans, Syrians, Haitians, Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Somalis, South Sudanese, and Ethiopians all being targets of that policy.
The number of people entering through US borders has also dropped precipitously.
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