The State Department Says It Has Revoked More Than 250,000 Visas Since January 2025. Here Is What the Number Does and Does Not Say.
On Sept. 30, 2026, the State Department said it has revoked more than 250,000 visas since President Trump returned to office in January 2025, a milestone announced by spokesperson Tommy Pigott and posted on the department’s X account.
The department said 2,300 of the revocations involved birth tourism, and separately cited action against 27 current or former Latin American officials, announced Sept. 28. The figure was 175,000 in an Aug. 10 release.
Some coverage has cited a figure above 300,000. We found no State Department statement supporting it, so this page uses the 250,000 figure the department posted on Sept. 30.
- 250,000+visas revokedsince Jan. 20, 2025, per the State Department's Sept. 30 announcement — Fox News; Sinclair
- ~75,000in roughly seven weeksthe gap between the Aug. 10 total (175,000+) and the Sept. 30 total (250,000+), by our subtraction; both are floors — Fox News
- 2,300birth tourismrevocations the department tied to birth-tourism networks — Fox News
- ~40,000in 2024the comparison figure Fox reported when the 2025 total passed 100,000 — Fox News, Jan. 2026
Pigott said: “Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio, the State Department has now revoked more than 250,000 visas.” The department’s stated framework is continuous vetting of visa holders, which it announced in August 2025 would cover about 55 million people, per KJZZ.
The count covers Jan. 20, 2025 to the announcement date. Fox News reported the milestone as an exclusive; Sinclair’s wire story and the Epoch Times followed on Oct. 1 and 2. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R) is the policy owner.
The department reported about 80,000 revocations in November 2025 and more than 100,000 in January 2026, per Al-Monitor. In July, Pigott told Breitbart the figure was over 100,000 and “significantly higher” than that. The August release said 175,000, and the September announcement said 250,000.
Fox reported in January that the 2025 total of more than 100,000 was more than double 2024’s roughly 40,000; Al-Monitor reports it as a 150 percent rise. The 2024 figure is Fox’s, and we found no primary State Department source for it.
State’s August release said the majority of the 175,000 were revoked after law-enforcement encounters, with assault, drunk driving, theft and drug crimes leading, and significant shares for reckless driving, sexual assault, child abuse, fraud and embezzlement. There are no per-category counts. The Sept. 30 announcement cited 2,300 birth-tourism revocations. Separately, the department announced on Sept. 28 visa action against 27 current or former officials and relatives from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru under INA 212(a)(3)(C), per the Epoch Times; the sources do not say whether they are counted in the 250,000.
“A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right — and if you violate the terms of that privilege, you will lose it.”
Tommy Pigott, State Department spokesperson — Sept. 30, 2026
Earlier counts included about 6,000 student visas in August 2025 and about 8,000 by January 2026, plus about 2,500 specialized visas, per KJZZ and Al-Monitor. No student or worker figure was published with the 250,000 announcement.
The most visible court challenge targets a narrower policy than the criminal revocations. In AAUP v. Rubio, U.S. District Judge William G. Young ruled on Sept. 30, 2025 that the administration’s policy of arresting, detaining and deporting noncitizens over pro-Palestinian speech violated the First Amendment; he entered judgment in January 2026, and the government appealed to the First Circuit in February; the appeals were pending as of Clearinghouse’s last update in March, per Clearinghouse. Separately, AP reported in August that a plan to revoke up to 200,000 business and tourist visas held by people who later sought asylum would “likely face legal challenges.” No suit has been identified.
Marco Rubio (R) — Secretary of State; owns the revocation policy.
Tommy Pigott — State Department spokesperson; announced the milestone.
Christopher Landau — Deputy Secretary of State in the Trump administration; framed asylum as not a loophole to circumvent immigration laws.
William G. Young — U.S. District Judge, D. Mass.; ruled in AAUP v. Rubio.
Established: the State Department says it has revoked more than 250,000 visas since Jan. 20, 2025, including 2,300 for birth tourism, and says most earlier revocations followed law-enforcement encounters. Not established: how many revocations followed a conviction, how many holders were inside the United States, how many were removed, or how many are contested. Those figures would show what the total means for public safety, and the department has not published them.
The State Department says it has revoked more than 250,000 visas since January 2025, up roughly 75,000 in about seven weeks. It has described the categories, led by law-enforcement encounters, but has not published how many followed a conviction or how many holders have left the country.
