Image Credit: J. David Ake / Contributor / Getty Images 
The US government has revoked 80,000 non-immigrant visas since the beginning of the year.
In a post on X announcing the revocations, the State Department said it “will always put the safety and interests of the American people first.”
Visas were revoked for a number of different reasons, including for terrorism, criminal activity, public-safety threats and overstaying.
Sixteen thousand visas were revoked in 2025 for driving under the influence of alcohol, 12,000 for assault and 8,000 for theft.
“The Trump Administration will not hesitate to revoke visas from foreigners who undermine our laws or threaten our national security,” Tommy Pigott, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, said in a post on X.
The State Department recently revoked the visas of a number of foreign nationals who expressed their support for the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
A South African national and individuals from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Paraguay had their visas revoked for this reason.
“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans,” the department said, adding that it “continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
The Trump administration has significantly reduced the number of non-immigrant visas issued.
In May, the State Department issued 897,397 visas, down 16% on May 2024, when over 1,000,000 visas were issued.
Immigrant visas were also down 20% in May 2025 on May of the previous year.
The vetting process, especially for student visas, has also been strengthened, with grater scrutiny of social-media accounts.
Student visas have been revoked for individuals who were involved in the nationwide pro-Palestine protests, and also for Chinese nationals with links to the Chinese Communist Party.
In a high-profile move, the Trump administration also placed a one-time $100,000 fee on H-1B visas to hire foreign workers, in an attempt to prioritise jobs for American workers. Rules According to government data, India was by far the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71% of all approved visas, with China accounting for 11.7%.
In the first half of 2025, Amazon.com and its cloud-computing unit, AWS, received approval for more than 12,000 H-1B visas, while Microsoft and Meta Platforms were granted over 5,000 H-1B visa approvals each.
The H-1B visa system has been a target for the Trump administration as part of its wide-ranging immigration and labor reforms.
In December, potential reforms to the H-1B visa scheme led to an acrimonious public row. Ill-advised comments from Vivek Ramaswamy about Americans’ failings in the job market—including a bizarre suggestion that Americans spend too much time idolizing Zach and Slater from Saved by the Bell and had too many sleepovers when they could be studying—led to his removal from DOGE and also caused the first open break between Elon Musk and the Trump administration.
Critics of the H-1B program have argued that it allows companies to suppress wages, especially in the tech sector, and disadvantages American workers.
