The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreign nationals who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If carried out, the move would represent the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would be likely to face legal challenges.

Unless the plan is challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking it, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two U.S. officials. The action will be taken 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,” said State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

Pigott declined to comment on the number of visas that might be revoked, saying, “as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis.”

The revocations would not necessarily result in immediate deportations, the officials said. Most of those with asylum cases currently pending would be recategorized, but they would lose their status as business or tourism travelers, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the revocations are not final yet. Those pending cases sit within an immigration court system that has been contending with a backlog of more than 3 million cases, where asylum claims can take years to adjudicate.

Since President Donald Trump took office for his second term last year, his administration has steadily ramped up restrictions on visa applicants — demanding more information about their social media histories, requiring the posting of expensive bonds for the processing of visas, and outright banning the issuance of visas to citizens of certain countries.

In a social media post on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called out people who, he said, try to use tourist and business visas to get into the United States and then apply for asylum. “People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims,” Landau wrote on X. “Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.” He cited the case of a Colombian citizen who came to the U.S. in 2015 on a tourist visa and then applied for asylum.

B1 visas are generally issued for business trips, and B2 visas are generally issued for tourism, family visits, or medical care. Admissions on these visas are typically granted for stays of up to six months, and the State Department issues millions of them each year. It was not immediately clear from the documents or from the officials how many of these visa holders are seeking or have sought asylum in the United States and would be affected by the revocations.

Current applicants for B1 and B2 visas are asked to affirm that they will not apply for asylum in the United States and to prove that they intend to return to their home countries. Under U.S. law, however, there is no dedicated visa category for seeking asylum: the Immigration and Nationality Act allows anyone physically present in the United States to apply for asylum regardless of how they arrived or what status they hold, generally within one year of entry. That legal framework is the backdrop to the pattern the administration describes — visitors who lawfully enter on B visas and then file asylum claims.

The planned revocations follow a broader enforcement push. Over the past 18 months, the State Department has revoked about 175,000 visas belonging to people who have been convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunken driving to rape and robbery, as well as to people who have spoken out publicly against U.S. policies, particularly in the Middle East.

The administration has also moved to crack down on so-called birth tourism, a practice the administration claims is used by foreign pregnant women who come to the United States to give birth so that their child will benefit from birthright citizenship. Trump has tried several times to end birthright citizenship, but those challenges have been rejected by courts, including the Supreme Court — a record of judicial pushback that shapes expectations for how the new revocation plan may fare if, as anticipated, it is challenged in court.

The State Department documents obtained by the AP suggest that screening of current B1 and B2 visa holders began after the State Department received information about asylum requests from the Citizen and Immigration Service.

Source: Fortune