The figures point to a sharp increase in the use of visa revocation as part of the administration’s broader immigration enforcement policy. According to Newsweek, more than 100,000 visas were revoked during 2025, while at least another 75,000 had been revoked in 2026 by August. The department has said each decision is made individually and that a U.S. visa is “a privilege, not a right.”
Revocations Have Risen Sharply Compared with 2024
The State Department says the majority of the revoked visas involved foreign nationals who had encounters with law enforcement. Assault, driving under the influence, theft and drug offenses were among the leading reasons cited, while other cases involved reckless driving, sexual assault, child abuse, fraud and embezzlement.
According to the South China Morning Post, the department described the more than 100,000 visas revoked in 2025 as the highest annual total on record. The agency has also said that it is on pace to surpass that figure in 2026, although it has not released an exact year-to-date total or a breakdown by visa category or nationality.
The scale is substantially higher than the figure reported during Biden’s final full year. His State Department revoked approximately 40,000 visas in 2024. Still, direct historical comparisons remain limited because the State Department does not publish a consistent annual tally of visa revocations across administrations.
Visa revocations are also distinct from deportations. A visa generally permits a foreign national to seek entry to the United States, while immigration status and removal are governed through separate procedures. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded 271,484 removals in fiscal 2024 under Biden, more than in any individual year of Trump’s first term. Across Trump’s first term, ICE recorded about 935,000 removals, compared with about 545,000 during Biden’s four years.
Criminal Cases and Political Speech Have Drawn Scrutiny
The administration has highlighted a wide range of cases to explain the revocations. The State Department said a U.S. embassy in North Africa revoked more than 100 visas involving parents accused of traveling primarily to give birth in the United States so their children would obtain U.S. citizenship. Officials have also cited people accused of serious crimes, fraud and conduct linked to national-security or foreign-policy concerns.
Those decisions have prompted criticism from civil liberties organizations and immigration advocates, particularly where political expression became part of government scrutiny. One prominent case involved Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University whose visa was revoked after she co-authored an opinion article criticizing the university’s response to the war in Gaza.
In February 2026, an immigration judge terminated removal proceedings against Öztürk after finding that the Department of Homeland Security had not established legal grounds to deport her. The administration has rejected claims that it generally revokes visas because of political viewpoints, maintaining that foreign nationals can lose immigration privileges when their conduct falls under national-security, public-safety or other grounds recognized by immigration law.
