Trump admin reviews all 55 million visa holders in US for deportation over 'potential ineligibility'
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly reviewing all 55 million foreign visa holders in the United States for potential "revocation or deportable violations of immigration rules."
The State Department on Tuesday, August 19, announced that it had revoked over 6,000 student visas for reasons ranging from overstays to visa holders getting DUIs.
State Department looks for indicators of ineligibility
According to a new report, "The department said it was looking for indicators of ineligibility, including visa overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity, or providing support to a terrorist organization."
"We review all available information as part of our vetting, including law enforcement or immigration records, or any other information that comes to light after visa issuance indicating a potential ineligibility," per the department.
A State spokesperson claimed that the "vast majority" of revocations were related to assault, DUI, burglary, and "support for terrorism".
Moreover, they added that around 4,000 of those who lost their visas had broken the law, while 200 to 300 visas were revoked over "support for terrorism".
Interestingly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration made headlines earlier in 2025 as they moved to detain and deport Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil for his pro-Palestinian activism.
Notably, since then, Khalil has been released and is suing the federal government.
Meanwhile, the report also mentioned that "the review of all visa holders appears to be a significant expansion of what had initially been a re-vetting process focused mainly on students who have been involved in pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel activity."
Trump’s allies, such as Steve Bannon, have long pushed for Trump to limit foreign workers coming into the United States on H-1B visas.
However, many economists and business leaders, including Elon Musk, have warned that a crackdown on H-1Bs would affect the economy.
Deportation under Trump's second term
Donald Trump became president promising the largest mass deportation in US history, and targeting the more than 10 million unauthorized migrants living in the US.
The data shows that since Trump took office, border crossings have declined, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests have doubled, and the number of people in detention is at an all-time high.
ICE informed Congress in 2024 that, as of July, it had identified 435,000 unauthorized immigrants with criminal convictions in the US who were not in custody.
Out of those non-citizens, 13,099 were convicted of murder and 15,811 were convicted of sexual assault.
However, at the end of May 2025, ICE had arrested 752 non-citizens convicted of murder and 1,693 convicted of sexual assault, NBC reported.
Similarly, Customs and Border Protection's data showed that attempted southwest border crossings in July 2025 was 7,832, and it had gone down by 1,472 since the month before.
