The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of as many as 200,000 foreigners who have applied for asylum in the United States, a step that would constitute the largest single mass revocation of visas in American history and is widely expected to draw legal challenges.

The State Department plans to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought or are currently seeking asylum, according to department documents obtained by the Associated Press and two US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the action is not final. The operation will be carried out in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

"We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant 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," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said. He declined to confirm the scale, saying that "as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis."

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau framed the rationale bluntly on X, writing that the American immigration system "has long been swamped by frivolous asylum claims." He added: "People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims. Asylum isn't supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law." Landau cited the case of a Colombian citizen who entered the US on a tourist visa in 2015 and then applied for asylum.

How the Revocations Would Work

B1 visas are generally issued for business trips; B2 visas cover tourism, family visits, and medical care. Current applicants for both must affirm they will not apply for asylum and demonstrate that they intend to return to their home countries — the premise the administration says asylum filers violated.

The documents suggest the screening effort began after the State Department received information about asylum requests from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, allowing officials to match visa records against asylum applications. It was not immediately clear how many of the roughly 200,000 identified holders would ultimately lose their visas.

Losing the visa would not necessarily mean immediate deportation, the officials said, and a revocation would not by itself invalidate a pending asylum claim. Most people with cases in process would be recategorized, forfeiting their status as business or tourism travelers while their claims proceed — a change that narrows their legal footing in the country and, in practice, increases pressure to leave.

Doubling an Already Aggressive Tally

The planned action would roughly double the pace of a revocation campaign already without modern precedent. Over the past 18 months, the State Department has canceled about 175,000 visas — for people convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunken driving to rape and robbery, and for people who publicly criticized US policies, particularly in the Middle East. The department separately reported revoking some 900 visas in its crackdown on "birth tourism," and recently canceled the visa of Brazil's ambassador to the US amid the dispute with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government.

The asylum-linked revocations extend a layered tightening of legal entry: expanded social media vetting for applicants, visa bond requirements now being made permanent that fall mostly on African countries, time limits on foreign students and journalists, outright issuance bans for certain nationalities, and a directive that green card applicants leave the US and apply from their home countries. Temporary protected status has ended for 13 nationalities, with the first deportation flight to Haiti departing this month and removals to third countries beginning under a pact with Liberia.

The courts have trimmed parts of the agenda. On Friday, a federal judge struck down the department's suspension of immigrant visas from 75 countries, ruling Secretary of State Marco Rubio exceeded his statutory authority — a reminder that the coming revocation, which the officials acknowledged will likely be challenged, faces an uncertain legal path of its own.

A $103,000 Price Tag on Skilled Workers, Announced the Same Day

The administration paired the revocation plan with a second move against a different visa channel. The Department of Homeland Security on Monday proposed a $103,265 fee for new H-1B skilled-worker visa applications, formalizing and extending the temporary $100,000 charge President Donald Trump imposed by proclamation last September, which was set to expire.

The new rule, slated for publication in the Federal Register on Tuesday and potentially final by year's end, applies only to new applicants — not renewals or foreign workers already in the US on student visas. The fee is designed to generate roughly $3 billion annually for the immigration system, including $1 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a structure crafted with an eye on the courts: a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in June that the original fee was an unlawful tax imposed without congressional authority and without the required comment period, though a separate court in Washington upheld it in December. The 1st Circuit is reviewing the Massachusetts decision on appeal.

"President Trump has clear legal authority to restrict entry of any class of aliens he determines is not in America's best interests," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said. The H-1B program typically offers 65,000 visas annually plus 20,000 for advanced-degree holders, at historical costs between $2,000 and $5,000; DHS is separately replacing the program's random lottery with a wage-weighted selection process effective in February 2027.

The Stakes Ahead

Rights groups argue the broader crackdown has violated free speech and due process rights and fostered an unsafe climate for ethnic minorities who report concerns about profiling. The administration counters that it is closing loopholes: travelers who promised to go home and instead filed to stay, and an employment program it says has been "abused for decades."

What happens next turns on execution and litigation. The revocation list must be finalized and announced, individual recategorizations processed, and the inevitable court challenges answered — against the backdrop of a judiciary that has alternately blessed and blocked the administration's visa initiatives. If the 200,000 figure holds, the action would mark the single largest exercise of the department's revocation power ever undertaken, and a definitive test of how far that power extends.