The Trump administration is preparing to revoke B1 and B2 business and tourism visas from up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for, or are currently pursuing, asylum in the United States. The action has not yet been formally announced but would, if carried out at the scale described, constitute the largest single mass visa revocation in the country's history, according to officials cited by the Associated Press.
The State Department, coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is expected to make a formal announcement in the coming weeks. The revocations would cover visas issued between 2016 and 2026, the Straits Times reported.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott confirmed the effort. The government is working with DHS, he said, "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." Pigott declined to confirm the number of visas at stake, saying revocations "will be done on a rolling basis" and that the number "remains dynamic," The Hill reported.
Current B1 and B2 applicants are asked to affirm that they will not apply for asylum and to demonstrate that they plan to return to their home countries, The Hill reported.
Revocation would not necessarily trigger immediate deportation. Most affected individuals with pending asylum cases would be recategorised but would lose their standing as business or tourism travellers, the Straits Times reported. What status they would be assigned in its place remains unknown. The precise final number of visas to be revoked is also unclear.
The action is expected to face legal challenges, though the specific courts and arguments through which those challenges would be mounted are not yet known, Axios reported.
The planned revocations sit within a broader pattern of visa cancellations since the administration took office. The State Department announced on 10 August 2026 that it had already revoked more than 175,000 visas, primarily on the grounds of law enforcement encounters involving criminal activity including assault, driving under the influence, theft, and drug crimes, Reuters reported. In January 2026, the department had said it revoked more than 100,000 visas, which was itself a record at that time.
The administration has characterised the asylum system as overwhelmed by cases it considers frivolous, and has argued that those who entered on short-term visitor visas while intending to seek asylum misrepresented their purposes. Rights groups have raised concerns about due process and the potential for racial profiling.
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