WASHINGTON — A day after conservative activist Laura Loomer, an advisor to President Trump, posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the U.S. for medical treatment and questioning how they got visas, the State Department said it was halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza pending a review.
The State Department said Saturday the visas would be stopped while it looks into how “a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas” were issued in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told “Face the Nation” on CBS that the action came after ”outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it.”
Rubio said that there were “just a small number” of the visas issued to children in need of medical aid but that they were accompanied by adults. The congressional offices reached out with evidence that “some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas,” he asserted, without providing evidence or naming those organizations.
As a result, he said, “we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship, if any, has there been by these organizations to the process of acquiring those visas.”
Loomer on Friday posted videos on X of children from Gaza arriving this month in San Francisco and Houston for medical treatment with the aid of an organization called Heal Palestine. “Despite the US saying we are not accepting Palestinian ‘refugees’ into the United States under the Trump administration,” these people from Gaza were able to travel to the U.S., she said.
She called it a “national security threat” and asked who signed off on the visas, calling for the person to be fired. She tagged Rubio, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Trump has downplayed Loomer’s influence on his administration, but several officials swiftly left or were removed shortly after she publicly criticized them.
The State Department on Sunday declined to comment on how many of the visas had been granted and whether the decision to halt visas to people from Gaza had anything to do with Loomer’s posts.
Heal Palestine said in a statement Sunday that it was “distressed” by the State Department decision to stop halt visitor visas from Gaza. The group said it is “an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine.”
A post on the organization’s Facebook page Thursday shows a photo of a boy from the Gaza Strip leaving Egypt and headed to St. Louis for treatment and said he is “our 15th evacuated child arriving in the U.S. in the last two weeks.”
The organization brings “severely injured children” to the U.S. on temporary visas for treatment they can’t get at home, the statement said. After treatment, the children and any family members who accompanied them return to the Middle East, the statement said.
“This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” it said.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly called for more medical evacuations from Gaza, where Israel’s 22-month war against Hamas has heavily destroyed or damaged much of the territory’s health system.
“More than 14,800 patients still need lifesaving medical care that is not available in Gaza,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday on social media, and called on more countries to offer support.
A WHO description of the medical evacuation process from Gaza published last year explained that the organization submits lists of patients to Israeli authorities for security clearance. It noted that before the war in Gaza began, 50 to 100 patients were leaving the territory daily for medical treatment, and it called for a higher rate of approvals from Israeli authorities.
The United Nations and partners say medicines and basic healthcare supplies are low in Gaza after Israel cut off all aid to the territory of over 2 million people for more than 10 weeks earlier this year.
“Ceasefire! Peace is the best medicine,” Tedros added Wednesday.
Conservative activist Laura Loomer, a Trump ally, says she has a new Pentagon press pass
NEW YORK — With the Pentagon’s press room largely cleared of mainstream reporters, conservative activist and presidential ally Laura Loomer says she has been granted a credential to work there.
Loomer has an influential social media presence and the ear of President Trump, frequently campaigning for the firings of government officials she deems insufficiently loyal to his administration. Some targets have been in the field of national security, including Dan Driscoll, secretary of the Army.
Pentagon officials did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Tuesday. The Washington Post first reported the news of her attaining credentials.
Virtually all Pentagon reporters for legacy media outlets walked out last month rather than agree to a new policy they say would restrict their ability to report news not given approval for release by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Several right-wing outlets have taken their place, although the banned journalists are continuing to work on stories related to the Pentagon.
“I’m excited to announce that after a year of breaking the most impactful stories that pertain to our national security and rooting out deceptive and disloyal bad actors” from the Defense Department, she was ready to join the press corps, Loomer said on X, formerly Twitter. She did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Earlier this year, she criticized Driscoll for publicly honoring a Medal of Honor recipient who had previously spoken at a Democratic National Convention. Separately, Driscoll rescinded the appointment of a former Biden administration official to teach at West Point after Loomer attacked him for it.
Although Trump later downplayed Loomer’s influence, the president last spring fired a handful of National Security Council officials after she had presented him with evidence of their supposed disloyalty.
Still, she’s been a polarizing force among some in the administration, wary of her influence, which has included riding on Air Force One with Trump. Although granted space in the Pentagon press room, Loomer has not received reporting credentials at the White House. Loomer has also been criticized for entertaining conspiracy theories and making anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim posts.
“There is no denying that my investigative reporting has had a massive impact on the landscape of personnel decisions within the Executive Branch, our intelligence agencies and the Pentagon,” Loomer wrote on X. “I look forward to covering the Pentagon and breaking more stories that impact our country and our national security.”
In her social media post, she also reached out to people to alert her to news through “the Loomered Tip Line, the most influential Tip Line in all of DC.”
Phil Stewart, a national security reporter for Reuters, noted on a social media post Tuesday that Hegseth’s new media policy would make reporters subject to having their access revoked for seeking out information from Defense Department personnel that had not been authorized for release.
However, Loomer’s appeal for tips did not explicitly target people who work at the Defense Department.
Bauder writes for the Associated Press.
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Trump administration halts visas for people from Gaza
WASHINGTON — A day after conservative activist Laura Loomer, an advisor to President Trump, posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the U.S. for medical treatment and questioning how they got visas, the State Department said it was halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza pending a review.
The State Department said Saturday the visas would be stopped while it looks into how “a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas” were issued in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told “Face the Nation” on CBS that the action came after ”outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it.”
Rubio said that there were “just a small number” of the visas issued to children in need of medical aid but that they were accompanied by adults. The congressional offices reached out with evidence that “some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas,” he asserted, without providing evidence or naming those organizations.
As a result, he said, “we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship, if any, has there been by these organizations to the process of acquiring those visas.”
Loomer on Friday posted videos on X of children from Gaza arriving this month in San Francisco and Houston for medical treatment with the aid of an organization called Heal Palestine. “Despite the US saying we are not accepting Palestinian ‘refugees’ into the United States under the Trump administration,” these people from Gaza were able to travel to the U.S., she said.
She called it a “national security threat” and asked who signed off on the visas, calling for the person to be fired. She tagged Rubio, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Trump has downplayed Loomer’s influence on his administration, but several officials swiftly left or were removed shortly after she publicly criticized them.
The State Department on Sunday declined to comment on how many of the visas had been granted and whether the decision to halt visas to people from Gaza had anything to do with Loomer’s posts.
Heal Palestine said in a statement Sunday that it was “distressed” by the State Department decision to stop halt visitor visas from Gaza. The group said it is “an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine.”
A post on the organization’s Facebook page Thursday shows a photo of a boy from the Gaza Strip leaving Egypt and headed to St. Louis for treatment and said he is “our 15th evacuated child arriving in the U.S. in the last two weeks.”
The organization brings “severely injured children” to the U.S. on temporary visas for treatment they can’t get at home, the statement said. After treatment, the children and any family members who accompanied them return to the Middle East, the statement said.
“This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” it said.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly called for more medical evacuations from Gaza, where Israel’s 22-month war against Hamas has heavily destroyed or damaged much of the territory’s health system.
“More than 14,800 patients still need lifesaving medical care that is not available in Gaza,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday on social media, and called on more countries to offer support.
A WHO description of the medical evacuation process from Gaza published last year explained that the organization submits lists of patients to Israeli authorities for security clearance. It noted that before the war in Gaza began, 50 to 100 patients were leaving the territory daily for medical treatment, and it called for a higher rate of approvals from Israeli authorities.
The United Nations and partners say medicines and basic healthcare supplies are low in Gaza after Israel cut off all aid to the territory of over 2 million people for more than 10 weeks earlier this year.
“Ceasefire! Peace is the best medicine,” Tedros added Wednesday.
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