visas

Jose Raul Mulino says the visa-removal policy is ‘not coherent’ with the ‘good relationship’ he hopes to have with the US.

Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said that someone at the United States Embassy has been threatening to cancel the visas of Panamanian officials.

His statements come as the administration of US President Donald Trump pressures Panama to limit its ties to China.

Responding to a reporter’s question at his weekly news conference, Mulino said — without offering evidence — that an official at the US Embassy is “threatening to take visas”, adding that such actions are “not coherent with the good relationship I aspire to maintain with the United States”. He did not name the official.

The US Embassy in Panama did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has previously declined to comment on individual visa decisions.

But in September, the US Department of State said in a statement that the country was committed to countering China’s influence in Central America. It added that it would restrict visas for people who maintained relationships with China’s Communist Party or undermined democracy in the region on behalf of China.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration revoked the visas of six foreigners deemed by US officials to have made derisive comments or made light of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month.

Similar cases have surfaced recently in the region. In April, former Costa Rica President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias said the US had cancelled his visa. In July, Vanessa Castro, vice president of Costa Rica’s Congress, said that the US Embassy told her her visa had been revoked, citing alleged contacts with the Chinese Communist Party.

Panama has become especially sensitive to the US-China tensions because of the strategically important Panama Canal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama in February on his first foreign trip as the top US diplomat and called for Panama to immediately reduce China’s influence over the canal.

Panama has strongly denied Chinese influence over canal operations but has gone along with US pressure to push the Hong Kong-based company that operated ports on both ends of the canal to sell its concession to a consortium.

Mulino has said that Panama will maintain the canal’s neutrality.

“They’re free to give and take a visa to anyone they want, but not threatening that, ‘If you don’t do something, I’ll take the visa,’” Mulino said Thursday.

He noted that the underlying issue — the conflict between the US and China — “doesn’t involve Panama”.

The State Department says the US has ‘no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans’ after revoking visas over critical social media posts.

The US Department of State says it has revoked the visas of six foreigners over remarks they made on social media about Charlie Kirk, the conservative political activist who was shot dead at a rally in September.

“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans. The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,” the department said in a post on X on Tuesday evening in the US.

The post was followed by a list of screenshots and critical remarks from six social media accounts, which the State Department said belonged to individuals from South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay and Mexico.

“An Argentine national said that Kirk ‘devoted his entire life spreading racist, xenophobic, misogynistic rhetoric’ and deserves to burn in hell. Visa revoked,” the State Department tweeted along with a screenshot that had the username blacked out.

The screenshot post said Kirk was now somewhere “hot” – an allusion to religious descriptions of hell.

The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.

The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. Here are just a few examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the U.S.:

— Department of State (@StateDept) October 14, 2025

The news from the State Department came as Kirk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday by President Donald Trump.

Kirk, who was 31 at the time of his death, was a cofounder of the conservative Turning Point student organisation. He was credited with driving young voters to vote for Trump during last year’s US presidential election.

His death led to a wave of social media commentary on the US left and right about his politics, as Trump elevated him to the status of a “martyr for truth” during a memorial service.

More than 145 people were fired, suspended, or resigned over social media posts or comments about Kirk, according to a New York Times investigation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said the Trump administration could revoke the visas of foreign nationals over comments on Kirk, while Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau urged internet users to report social media comments of people applying for US visas.

“I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalising, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action,” Landau tweeted in September. “Please feel free to bring such comments by foreigners to my attention so that the [State Department] can protect the American people.”

In light of yesterday’s horrific assassination of a leading political figure, I want to underscore that foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country. I have been disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light…

— Christopher Landau (@DeputySecState) September 11, 2025

While the State Department has required visa applicants to share their social media handles on their applications since 2019, in June, it added the provision that student applicants must make all their social media accounts public for government vetting.

The move follows a crackdown on international students who supported pro-Palestine protests on university and college campuses across the US under the Trump administration.

In August, a State Department official told Fox News it had revoked more than 6,000 student visas this year.

About two-thirds of visas were revoked because students reportedly broke US law, the Fox News report said, while “200 to 300” were cancelled because they supported “terrorism” or engaged in “behaviour such as raising funds for the militant group Hamas”.

Indian nationals see decrease of 45 percent compared to same period last year as US clamps down on foreign students.

The number of student visas issued by the United States has dropped by about one-fifth compared to the same one-month period last year, with India seeing a dramatic decline amid restrictive policies pursued by United States President Donald Trump.

Data from the International Trade Commission found that the US issued about 313,138 student visas in August, when studies typically begin at US universities, a 19.1 percent drop compared to August 2024.

For Indian students, the largest source of foreign students studying in the US, the drop was 44.5 percent during that period. Visa issuances also dropped for students from China, albeit at a lower rate.

Several Muslim-majority countries also saw massive declines, with student visas for Iranians dropping by 86 percent. The figures do not represent overall numbers of foreign students attending US universities, many of whom remain on previously issued visas.

The drop comes as the Trump administration has pursued a restrictive approach to immigration, while using funding to exert growing political pressure on US universities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked thousands of student visas, citing violations of US law, participation in protests, or in some cases, criticism of Israel. The targeting has been in parallel with pro-Israel groups that monitor and surveil university students involved in pro-Palestine activism.

In June, Rubio also ordered the temporary suspension of all student visa processing in order to enact greater oversight over student social media profiles.

Those vetting applications were told to look for “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States”.

However, the administration’s messaging towards certain countries has not always been consistent.

After initially vowing to restrict a large portion of Chinese students seeking to study in the US, Trump told reporters in August that he planned to admit 600,000 Chinese students into the country to study.

The figure was double the number of Chinese students currently studying in the US.

“We’re going to allow, it’s very important, 600,000 students. It’s very important,” Trump said at the time.

President Trump signed a proclamation that imposes a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, the immigration allocation set aside for highly skilled workers the U.S. economy needs. The new rules threaten the availability and deployment of human capital in the United States. This is misguided and will hurt U.S. growth and innovation, at a time when the global arms race for AI creates a vital need for the sharpest human talent and innovators.

We are professors who study and teach innovation-related topics at U.S. research universities. As immigrants to the United States from India and Panama respectively, we understand firsthand the sometimes painful discussions around H-1B immigration. Tensions around immigration routinely affect our academic institutions, our current students and former students now in industry. But there should be a lot of common ground on this polarizing topic.

STEM immigrants are creating substantial value in the United States. Immigrants play a significant role in entrepreneurial ventures in the United States and particularly startup innovation. Further, such immigrants are responsible for 23% of innovation output in the United States. This effect is in part based on policies that allow for foreign students to study and stay in the United States to work in startups.

H-1B immigration is like a natural selection process that benefits the U.S. immensely. Highly skilled immigrants in areas such as technology and medicine come hungry for hard work and full of ideas to better the world — to create new products, services and even markets as well as to cater to existing needs through more incremental improvement and optimization. Many of our best students are immigrants who are looking to stay in the United States and create work opportunities that would not be possible anywhere else in the world. In the United States, we recognize entrepreneurial success perhaps more than any other country. It is one of our greatest attributes as a society.

Nevertheless, we do have an immigration problem in the United States. The problem is that the distribution of benefits across the United States is highly skewed. Much of the wealth generated in terms of company creation and jobs has redounded to innovative clusters. But the idea to reduce the total number of H-1B immigrants by increasing the cost is exactly the wrong way to “solve” this problem — by dragging down the thriving parts of the economy rather than lifting up the rest.

To grow economic prosperity throughout the country, we need to offer more opportunities for more H-1B visa applicants. There are simply not enough trained U.S. nationals to take on the sort of labor required for the next wave of a tech-enabled industrial revolution.

Distributing the fruits of H-1B visa holders’ work more broadly requires a different approach than the U.S. has taken before. We should increase the total number of new H-1B visa recipients each year to 350,000 from around 85,000, with the additional visas apportioned across states so that locations like college towns — places like Lawrence, Kan., Gainesville, Fla., and Clemson, S.C., as well as cities such as Birmingham, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City and Boise receive sufficient numbers of H-1B workers. Visas could be allocated through a process akin to the resident-matching system for medical doctors, thereby sending workers to states where they would create greater value by filling economic and technological gaps. This infusion of labor would improve technological innovation in local economies and create local spillover effects in job creation and additional innovation.

Such immigration is necessary particularly now given a global push toward increased industrial policy, as China and others invest in AI and broader digital transformation. At a time when our national security is linked to technological innovation, it is shortsighted not to open ourselves to more immigration. If we do not, we will lose some of the best and brightest minds to Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore and other countries.

Immigration is currently a volatile political issue in the U.S., as it has been at some other moments in the nation’s history. Although this is a country of immigrants, for people who feel insecure about pocketbook and cultural issues, continued immigration can feel threatening. As a percentage of people living in the United States, it has been more than 100 years since there were as many immigrants here as there are now. But as with past waves of immigration, productivity and transformation have followed.

This is particularly clear for H-1B visa holders, who create opportunities for people born in the U.S. and ensure the vitality of American innovation, security and democratic values. Increasing the costs of such visas would chill their use and reduce U.S. prosperity and innovation exactly at a time of great need.

Hemant Bhargava is a professor of business at UC Davis Graduate School of Management and director of the Center for Analytics and Technology in Society. D. Daniel Sokol is a professor of law and business at USC.

As Trump’s order stirs anxiety, White House clarifies that the fee only applies to new applicants and will be levied per petition.

The United States has issued a clarification to its new H-1B visa policy, saying that the new $100,000 fee for skilled workers will be levied per petition and will not apply to current visa holders.

The announcement on Saturday came a day after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said it would be paid annually, and would apply to people seeking a new visa as well as renewals.

Lutnick’s comment prompted major tech firms, including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company, to warn employees with H1-B visas to stay in the country or return quickly.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, however, clarified that the fee will only apply to new visas and that the rule “does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to/from the US”.

“This is NOT an annual fee. It’s a one-time fee that applies only to the petition,” she wrote.

“Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter… This applies only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders,” she added.

The executive order imposing the new fee was signed by President Donald Trump on Friday night and is scheduled to take effect at 12:01am on (04:01 GMT) Sunday.

It is scheduled to expire after a year. But it could be extended if the Trump administration determines that is in the interest of the US to keep it.

H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialised skills – such as scientists, engineers and computer programmers – to work in the US, initially for three years, but extendable to six.

The visas are widely used by the tech industry and are doled out through a lottery system. Indian nationals account for nearly three-quarters of the permits.

Critics say the programme undercuts American workers, luring people from overseas who are often willing to work for as little as $60,000 annually. That is well below the $100,000-plus salaries typically paid to US technology workers.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said on Saturday that Trump’s latest plan “was being studied by all concerned, including by Indian industry″. The ministry warned that “this measure is likely to have humanitarian consequences by way of the disruption caused for families. Government hopes that these disruptions can be addressed suitably by the US authorities”.

The US Chamber of Commerce also expressed worry.

“We’re concerned about the impact on employees, their families and American employers,” it said in a statement. “We’re working with the Administration and our members to understand the full implications and the best path forward.”

On the popular Chinese social media app Rednote, meanwhile, many H-1B holders shared stories of rushing back to the US — some just hours after landing abroad – fearing they would be subject to the new fee.

Some people who were already on planes preparing to leave the country on Friday de-boarded over fears they may not be allowed to re-enter the US, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Allen Orr, an immigration lawyer and immigration chair of the National Bar Association, told Al Jazeera that the latest order has caused “mass confusion”.

Workers who held new or renewed H-1B visas and who were outside the US were told not to come, delaying start dates and costing money due to the “cancellation of flights and housing”, Orr said.

The lawyer added that Trump’s order was sending the wrong message to talented workers living abroad.

“If it applies to next year, $100,000 for an H-1B worker just basically puts it out of the market, and many of these jobs will then just remain overseas,” he said.

“The American secret is that we’ve basically taken talent from around the world and colonised it and made of the United States a sort of stamp. When we stop letting that talent into the United States, we’re hurting our brand,” he added.

WASHINGTON — The Indian government expressed concern Saturday about President Trump’s latest push to overhaul American immigration policy, dramatically raising the fee for visas that bring tech workers from India and other countries to the United States.

The president on Friday signed a proclamation that will require a $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visas — meant for high-skilled jobs that tech companies find hard to fill. He also rolled out a $1-million “gold card” visa for wealthy individuals, moves that face near-certain legal challenges amid widespread criticism that he is sidestepping Congress.

If the moves survive legal muster, they will deliver staggering price increases. The visa fee for skilled workers is currently $215.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said Saturday that Trump’s plan “was being studied by all concerned, including by Indian industry.” The ministry warned that “this measure is likely to have humanitarian consequences by way of the disruption caused for families. Government hopes that these disruptions can be addressed suitably by the U.S. authorities.”

More than 70% of H-1B visa holders are from India.

H-1B visas, which require at least a bachelor’s degree, are meant for high-skilled jobs that tech companies find difficult to fill. Critics say the program undercuts American workers, luring people from overseas who are often willing to work for as little as $60,000 annually. That is well below the $100,000-plus salaries typically paid to U.S. technology workers.

Trump said Friday that the tech industry would not oppose the move. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed that “all big companies” are on board.

Representatives for the biggest tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, did not immediately respond to messages for comment. Microsoft declined to comment.

“We’re concerned about the impact on employees, their families and American employers,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a statement. “We’re working with the Administration and our members to understand the full implications and the best path forward.”

Lutnick said the change would probably result in far fewer H-1B visas than the 85,000 annual cap allows because “it’s just not economic anymore.”

“If you’re going to train people, you’re going to train Americans,” Lutnick said on a conference call with reporters. “If you have a very sophisticated engineer and you want to bring them in … then you can pay $100,000 a year for your H-1B visa.”

Trump also announced that he will start selling a “gold card” visa with a path to U.S. citizenship for $1 million after vetting. For companies, it would cost $2 million to sponsor an employee.

Trump also announced a “platinum card,” which could be obtained for $5 million and would allow foreigners to spend up to 270 days in the U.S. without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income. Trump announced a $5-million gold card in February to replace an existing investor visa — this is now the platinum card.

Lutnick said the gold and platinum cards would replace employment-based visas that offer paths to citizenship, including for professors, scientists, artists and athletes.

Critics of H-1Bs visas who say they are used to replace U.S. citizens in certain jobs applauded the move. U.S. Tech Workers, an advocacy group, called it “the next best thing” to abolishing the visas.

Doug Rand, a senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration, said the proposed fee increase was “ludicrously lawless.”

“This isn’t real policy — it’s fan service for immigration restrictionists,” Rand said. “Trump gets his headlines, and inflicts a jolt of panic, and doesn’t care whether this survives first contact with the courts.”

“The president has no legal authority to tax American visas,” said Michael Clemens, a George Mason University economist who studies immigration. “He has the authority to charge reasonable fees for cost recovery, not set fees at $100,000 or $100 million or whatever suits his personal … arbitrary capricious whims.

“If the president feels that H-1B visas are harmful, he can work with the people’s representatives in Congress to reform the laws that regulate those visas. His choice to legislate by proclamation subverts our entire immigration governance system,’’ said Clemens, who is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Beyond that, it is poisonous [and] irresponsible to do so with no warning, no public debate, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers and millions of their colleagues and family members in chaos and fear.’’

Lutnick said the H-1B fees and gold card could be introduced by the president but the platinum card needs congressional approval.

Historically, H-1B visas have been doled out through lottery. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient of H-1B visas, with more than 10,000 awarded, followed by the Indian firm Tata Consultancy, then Microsoft, Apple and Google. Geographically, California has the highest number of H-1B workers.

Critics say H-1B spots often go to entry-level jobs, rather than senior positions with unique skill requirements. And while the program isn’t supposed to undercut U.S. wages or displace U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay less by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even if the specific workers hired have more experience.

As a result, many U.S. companies find it cheaper to contract out help desks, programming and other basic tasks to consulting companies such as Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tata — all in India — and IBM and Cognizant in the U.S. These consulting companies hire foreign workers, often from India, and contract them out to U.S. employers looking to save money.

Ron Hira, a professor in the political science department at Howard University and a longtime critic of H-1B visas, said the plan was a move in the right direction.

“It’s a recognition that the program is abused,’’ he said.

Raising the visa fee, he said, was an unusual way to address the H-1B program’s shortcomings. Normally, he said, reformers seek ways to raise the pay of the foreign workers, eliminating the incentive to use them to replace higher-paid Americans. He noted approvingly that Trump’s proclamation calls for the U.S. Labor Department to “initiate a rule-making [process] to revise the prevailing wage levels’’ under the visa program.

Critics of H-1B visas have also called on the lottery to be replaced by an auction in which companies vie for the right to bring in foreign workers.

First Lady Melania Trump, the Slovenian-born former Melania Knauss, was granted an H-1B work visa in October 1996 to work as a model.

In 2024, lottery bids for the visas plunged nearly 40%, which authorities said was due to success against people who were “gaming the system” by submitting multiple, sometimes dubious, applications to unfairly increase chances of being selected.

Major technology companies that use H-1B visas sought changes after massive increases in bids left their employees and prospective hires with slimmer chances of winning the random lottery. Facing what it acknowledged was likely fraud and abuse, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services this year said each employee had only one shot at the lottery, whether the person had one job offer or 50.

Critics welcomed the change but said more needs to be done. The AFL-CIO wrote last year that while changes to the lottery “included some steps in the right direction,” it fell short of needed reforms. The labor group wants visas awarded to companies that pay the highest wages instead of by random lottery, a change that Trump sought during his first term in the White House.

Associated Press writers Ortutay and Kim reported from Oakland and Washington, respectively. AP writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.

Fee paid by companies set to transform high-skill work visa system, upon which technology sector relies heavily.

United States President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation requiring a $100,000 application fee for companies seeking to sponsor workers H-1B visas.

Trump signed the proclamation during an event in the Oval Office, while also introducing a separate “gold card” visa for individuals to pay $1 million to expedite their immigration.

Administration officials said the change to the H1-B programme would assure that companies would only sponsor workers with the most rarified skill sets.

“We need great workers, and this pretty much ensures that’s what’s gonna happen,” he said.

However, such a prohibitive fee will likely vastly transform the H-1B system, which was created in 1990 in an effort to boost industries with high-skilled, hard-to-fill jobs, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math.

The visas are reserved for people with bachelor’s degrees or higher and have historically been awarded via a lottery system.

The programme has come under increased scrutiny from the Trump administration amid a wider crackdown on immigration, which Trump has tied to boosting domestic labour.

As part of that campaign, the Trump administration has also sought to introduce more restrictive policies on international students studying in the US, including requiring access to social media accounts and a ban on foreign travellers from several countries.

The administration has previously considered changing the H-1B visa rules to favour higher-paying employers, essentially doing away with the lottery system.

Supporters of the H-1B programme say it brings the best and brightest to work in the US, creating an edge against foreign competitors.

Critics have long charged that companies have abused the programme, using it to pay lower wages and to impose fewer labour protections.

The technology sector would be the hardest hit by any major change.

This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient of H-1B visas, with more than 10,000 awarded. The company was followed by Tata Consultancy, Microsoft, Apple and Google.

Geographically, California has the highest number of H-1B workers, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Meanwhile, India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71 percent of approved beneficiaries. China was a distant second at 11.7 percent, according to government data.

The H-1B visas are approved for a period of three to six years.

Aug. 29 (UPI) — U.S. officials revoked visas already issued to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority ahead of next month’s United Nations General Assembly, the State Department confirmed Friday.

The department is also denying outstanding visa requests to members of the PLO and PA for undermining efforts at achieving a cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.

Both directives are “in accordance with U.S. law,” and come directly from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the department said.

“The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the State Department said in the statement.

“Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism — including the October 7 massacre — and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO.”

In July, the State Department sanctioned Palestinian officials from both groups for not complying with their “commitments under the PLO Commitments Compliance Act of 1989 and the Middle East Peace Commitments Act of 2002.”

The U.N. General Assembly opens on September 9 at the agency’s headquarters in New York City.

Rubio’s department accused both the PLO and PA members of undermining peace talks in Gaza by going outside of formal negotiations. The secretary said both must end appeals to international bodies such as the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to “secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”

“Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks,” the department said in its statement.

Rubio said the United States remains open to negotiations and restoring the visas if the groups “meet their obligations and demonstrably take concrete steps to return to a constructive path of compromise and peaceful coexistence with the State of Israel.”

The news comes the same day officials in Britain banned Israeli government and military officials from attending an international defense and security event in London next month.

Israel’s war in Gaza is approaching the 700-day mark.

On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces said it was declaring the area around Gaza City a combat zone as it stepped up military operations on the ground in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of a number of Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization officials ahead of next month’s annual high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, where the groups previously have been represented.

The State Department said in a statement Friday that Rubio also had ordered some new visa applications from Palestinian officials be denied.

The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to target Palestinians with visa restrictions and comes as the Israeli military declared Gaza’s largest city a combat zone. The State Department also suspended a program that had allowed injured Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the U.S. for medical treatment after a social media outcry by some conservatives.

The State Department didn’t specify how many visas had been revoked or how many applications had been denied. The department did not immediately respond to a request for more specifics.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be affected.

The agency’s statement did say that representatives assigned to the Palestinian Authority mission at the United Nations would be granted waivers under the U.S. host country agreement with the U.N. so they can continue their New York-based operations.

“It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the statement said. “Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism — including the October 7 massacre — and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO.”

The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, told reporters Friday that he had just learned of Rubio’s decision and was assessing its impact.

“We will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly,” he said.

Mansour said Abbas was leading the delegation to next month’s U.N. meetings and was expected to address the General Assembly — as he has done for many years. He also was expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on Sept. 22 about a two-state solution, which calls for Israel living side by side with an independent Palestine.

Lee writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Aug. 28 (UPI) — The Department of Homeland Security plans to introduce a new rule capping the length of stay for international students, among other visa changes, amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The new rule will stipulate that foreign students who hold F visas and exchange visitors with J visas can reside in the United States for the duration of their program, but not to exceed four years. Since 1978, foreign F visa holders have been admitted to the United States for an unspecified period, allowing them to reside in the country as long as they are enrolled as full-time students.

The Trump administration says this move will “end foreign student visa abuse.”

“For too long, past administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the U.S. virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amounts of taxpayer dollars and disadvantaging U.S. citizens,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

“This new proposed rule would end that abuse once and for all by limiting the amount of time certain visa holders are allowed to remain in the U.S., easing the burden on the federal government to properly oversee foreign students and their history.”

Trump ran on a campaign to conduct mass deportations of non-citizens, and since returning to the White House in January has cracked down on immigration.

A focus of this crackdown has been universities, with the State Department earlier this month confirming that 6,000 student visas have been revoked so far this year.

Last week, the State Department announced plans to investigate all 55 million foreigners in the country with visas.

The new rule was swiftly rebuked by international education advocates as unnecessarily creating burdens for foreign students and exchange visitors.

“These changes will only serve to force aspiring students and scholars into a sea of administrative delays at best and, at worst, into unlawful presence status — leaving them vulnerable to punitive actions through no fault of their own,” Fanta Aw, executive direct and CEO of NAFAS: Association of International Educators, said in a statement.

Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, described the rule as “yet another unnecessary and counterproductive action” targeting students and scholars.

“This proposed rule sends a message to talented individuals from around the world that their contributions are not valued in the Unite States,” Feldblum said in a statement.

“This is not only detrimental to international students — it also weakens the ability of U.S. colleges and universities to attract top talent, diminishing our global competitiveness.”

The new measure also sets an initial admission period of up to 240 days for foreign media representatives, with the potential for an extension period of up to another 240 days, but no longer than the lengthen of their temporary activity or assignment.

WASHINGTON — The State Department said Thursday that it’s reviewing the records of more than 55 million foreigners who hold valid U.S. visas for potential revocation or deportable violations of immigration rules.

In a written answer to a question posed by the Associated Press, the department said that all U.S. visa holders are subject to “continuous vetting” with an eye toward any indication that they could be ineligible for the document.

Should such information be found, the visa will be revoked and, if the visa holder is in the United States, he or she would be subject to deportation.

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,” the department said.

Since President Trump took office in January, his administration has thus far focused on deporting migrants illegally in the United States as well as holders of student and visitor exchange visas. The State Department’s new language suggests that the re-vetting process, which officials acknowledge is time-consuming, is far more widespread.

The administration has steadily imposed more and more restrictions and requirements on visa applicants, including requiring all visa seekers to submit to in-person interviews.

But 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.

Officials say the reviews will include all the visa holders’ social media accounts, law enforcement and immigration records in their home countries, along with any actionable violations of U.S. law committed while they were in the United States.

“As part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to protect U.S. national security and public safety, since Inauguration Day the State Department has revoked more than twice as many visas, including nearly four times as many student visas, as during the same time period last year,” the department said.

Earlier this week, the department said that since Trump returned to the White House, it has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and violations of local, state and federal law, the vast majority of which were assault, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and support for terrorism.

It said that about 4,000 of those 6,000 were due to actual infractions of laws and that approximately 200–300 visas were revoked for terrorism-related issues, including providing support for designated terrorist organizations or state sponsors of terrorism.

Lee writes for the Associated Press.

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.

The US State Department has stopped all visitor visas for Palestinians arriving for urgent medical treatment from Gaza while it ‘reviews’ how approvals are handled. Aid groups have slammed the decision saying it blocks critically ill children from receiving life-saving treatment in the US.

State Department move comes as Israel’s war and induced-famine in Gaza reach new extremes, with 61,827 killed so far.

The United States has announced that it is halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza pending a “a full and thorough” review, a day after social media posts about Palestinian refugees sparked furious reactions from right-wingers.

The Department of State’s move on Saturday came a day after far-right activist and Trump ally Laura Loomer posted on X that Palestinians “who claim to be refugees from Gaza” entered the US via San Francisco and Houston this month.

“How is allowing for Islamic immigrants to come into the US America First policy?” she said on X in a later post, going on to report further Palestinian arrivals in Missouri and claiming that “several US Senators and members of Congress” had texted her to express their fury.

Republican lawmakers speaking publicly about the matter included Chip Roy of Texas, who said he would inquire about the matter, and Randy Fine of Florida, who described the alleged arrivals as a “national security risk”.

By Saturday, the State Department announced it was stopping visas for “individuals from Gaza” while it conducted “a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days”. It did not provide a figure.

All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.

— Department of State (@StateDept) August 16, 2025

The US issued 640 visas to holders of the Palestinian Authority travel document in May, according to the Reuters news agency. B1/B2 visitor visas permit Palestinians to seek medical treatment in the US.

Loomer greeted Saturday’s State Department announcement with glee.

“It’s amazing how fast we can get results from the Trump administration,” she said on Saturday, though she later posted that more needed to be done to “highlight the crisis of the invasion happening in our country”.

While I appreciate the State Department and @marcorubio issuing this statement, I want to press even harder to highlight the crisis of the invasion happening in our country.

The visas and arrivals of GAZANS to US airports isn’t new. This has been drastically increasing in speed… https://t.co/mI5APTairz

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 16, 2025

The decision to cut visas comes as Israel intensifies its attacks on Gaza, where at least 61,827 people have been killed in the past 22 months, with the United Nations warning that “widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease” are driving a rise in famine-related deaths.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing to seize Gaza City as part of a takeover of the Strip, forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to concentration zones.

President Donald Trump’s administration wants to overhaul the nation’s visa programme for highly skilled foreign workers.

If the administration does what one official described, it would change H-1B visa rules to favour employers that pay higher wages. That could effectively transform the visa into what one expert called “a luxury work permit” and disadvantage early-career workers with smaller salaries, including teachers. It could also upend the current visa programme’s lottery system used to distribute visas to eligible foreign workers.

“This shift may prevent many employers, including small and midsize businesses, from hiring the talent they need in shortage occupations, ultimately reducing America’s global competitiveness,” said David Leopold, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association whose practice includes representing employers in the H-1B process.

It’s hard to find US workers in certain types of specialty fields, including software engineers and developers and some STEM positions.

A White House office proposed the change on August 8, Bloomberg Law reported. Once the proposal appears in the Federal Register – the daily public report containing notices of proposed federal rule changes – the plan will become subject to a formal public comment period. It could be finalised within months, although it is likely to face legal challenges.

Joseph Edlow, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, told The New York Times in July that H-1B visas should favour companies that plan to pay foreign workers higher wages. The proposal Bloomberg Law described was in line with that goal.

PolitiFact did not see a copy of the proposal, and the White House did not respond to our questions. But the Department of Homeland Security submitted the proposed rule to a Trump administration office in July, the Greenberg Traurig law firm wrote.

Trump sought to reform the H-1B program during his first term but made limited progress. In January 2021, near the end of Trump’s term, the Department of Homeland Security published a final rule similar to the current proposal, but the Biden administration did not implement it.

Work visas were not a central part of Trump’s 2024 immigration platform, but it was a point of debate in the weeks before he took office, with billionaire businessman Elon Musk – a megadonor to Trump who would briefly serve in his administration – speaking in favour of them.

What are H-1B visas?

The H-1B visa programme lets employers temporarily hire foreign workers in specialty fields, with about two-thirds working in computer-related jobs, according to the Congressional Research Service. Most H-1B visa holders come from India, followed by China.

Currently, prospective H-1B employers must attest that they will pay the H-1B worker actual wages paid to similar employees or the prevailing wages for that occupation – whichever would result in the highest pay.

To qualify for the non-immigrant visa, the employee must hold a specialised degree, license or training required by the occupation. The status is generally valid for up to three years and renewable for another three years, but it can be extended if the employer sponsors the worker for permanent residency, which includes permission to work and live in the US.

Leopold said that the proposed change goes beyond the law’s current wage mandate.

“This statutory mechanism is designed to prevent employers from paying H-1B workers less than their American counterparts, thereby protecting US workers from displacement,” Leopold said.

Congress caps new H-1B visas at 85,000 per fiscal year, including 20,000 for noncitizens who earned advanced degrees. The government approved 400,000 H-1B applications, including renewals, in 2024, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

Amazon has led the nation’s employers since 2020 in its number of H-1B workers, Pew found.

The New York metro area received more H-1B application approvals than any other metro area; College Station, Texas had the highest concentration of approvals.

What could change with H1-B visas?

The proposed policy favours higher-paid employees, experts said.

Malcolm Goeschl, a San Francisco-based lawyer, said the rule will likely benefit tech companies, including many specialising in artificial intelligence. Such companies pay high salaries, including for entry-level positions. He said it will harm traditional tech companies’ programmes for new graduates.

“There will likely be plenty of lottery numbers available at the top of the prevailing wage scale, but very few or none at the bottom,” Goeschl said. “You may see young graduates shy away from the US labour market early on because of this. Or you could see companies just pay entry-level workers from other countries much higher salaries to get a chance in the lottery, leading to the perverse situation where the foreign workers are making a lot more money than similarly situated US workers.”

The prevailing wage requirements are designed to protect US jobs from being undercut by lower paid foreign workers.

David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the change would likely make it nearly impossible for recent immigrant college graduates, who tend to earn lower wages, to launch their careers in the United States on an H-1B visa.

“The short-term benefit would be the people who get selected are more productive, but the long-term cost might be to permanently redirect future skilled immigration to other countries,” Bier said. “It would also effectively prohibit the H-1B for many industries that rely on it. K-12 schools in rural areas seeking bilingual teachers, for instance, will have no chance under this system.”

Amid a nationwide teacher shortage, some school districts have hired H-1B visa holders, including smaller districts such as Jackson, Mississippi, and larger districts, including Dallas, Texas. Language immersion schools also often employ teachers from other countries using this visa programme.

Why is there a debate about H-1B visas?

The debate around H-1B visas does not neatly fall along partisan lines.

Proponents say the existing visa programme allows American employers to fill gaps, compete with other countries and recruit the “best minds”. Critics point to instances of fraud or abuse and say they favour policies that incentivise hiring Americans.

In December, high-profile Republicans debated the visa programme on social media.

MAGA influencer Laura Loomer denounced the programme and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called it a “scam”. On the other side, billionaire Elon Musk, a former H-1B visa holder whose companies employ such visa holders, called for the programme’s reform but defended it as an important talent recruitment mechanism.

Trump sided with Musk.

“I have many H-1B visas on my properties,” Trump told the New York Post in late December. “I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great programme.”

Senator Bernie Sanders disputed Musk, saying corporations abuse the programme as a way to get richer and should recruit American workers first.

Such visa debates have continued.

When US Representative Greg Murphy, a urologist, argued on X August 8 that the visas “are critical for helping alleviate the severe physician shortage”, thousands replied. Christina Pushaw, a Republican who works for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, pushed back: “Why not figure out the causes of the domestic physician shortage and try to pass legislation to address those?”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accuses Brazilian Supreme Court judge of creating a ‘persecution, censorship complex’.

Washington will restrict travel visas for Brazilian judicial officials and their immediate family members, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced, over what he called a “political witch-hunt” against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Announcing the move on Friday, Rubio accused Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of creating a sweeping “persecution and censorship complex” that not only “violates basic rights of Brazilians, but also extends beyond Brazil’s shores to target Americans”.

“I have therefore ordered visa revocations for Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members, effective immediately,” he said, without providing further details on who would be subject to the measures.

Brazilian newspaper O Globo also reported on Friday, without citing its source, that the US has revoked visas from seven more justices of Brazil’s Supreme Court. If accurate, the only Supreme Court judges not impacted would be Bolsonaro-appointed justices Andre Mendonca and Nunes Marques, and Judge Luiz Fux.

The move by the US comes after Brazil’s Supreme Court issued search warrants and restraining orders against Bolsonaro on Friday, banning him from contacting foreign officials amid allegations he courted US President Donald Trump’s interference in court cases against him.

Explaining his decision, Moraes accused Bolsonaro – who was president from 2019 to 2023 – of attacking Brazil’s sovereignty by encouraging the interference of the “head of state of a foreign nation” in its courts.

Bolsonaro’s ongoing trial relates to charges he attempted to carry out a coup and overturn current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s election victory in January 2023. The coup charges carry a 12-year sentence, and if convicted on other counts, Bolsonaro could spend decades behind bars.

Bolsonaro is now banned from contacting foreign officials, using social media or approaching embassies. He was also prohibited from contacting key allies, including his son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman working to drum up support for his father in Washington.

Federal police also raided Bolsonaro’s home and headquarters, with authorities ordering him to wear an ankle monitor following Moraes’s ruling that there is a “concrete possibility” he will attempt to flee the country.

Bolsonaro: ‘Trump of the Tropics’

Speaking to the Reuters news agency at his party’s headquarters on Friday, Bolsonaro called Moraes a “dictator” and described the court orders as acts of “cowardice”.

“I feel supreme humiliation,” he said when asked about wearing the ankle monitor. “I am 70 years old. I was president of the republic for four years,” he added.

On Friday afternoon, a five-judge panel of Supreme Court judges reviewed and upheld Moraes’s decision.

Bolsonaro also said he believed the court orders were a reaction to Trump’s criticism of his trial, in the latest indication that Washington’s interventions may be harming rather than helping the former president.

While Bolsonaro denied he planned to leave the country, he also said he would meet with Trump if his passport, seized by police last year, was returned.

When asked about Bolsonaro’s latest comments, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the former Brazilian leader and his supporters are “under attack from a weaponised court system”.

Trump has maintained friendly ties with ideological ally Bolsonaro – known as the “Trump of the Tropics” – since the US leader’s first term from 2017 to 2021.

On Thursday, Trump shared a letter on Truth Social he had sent to Bolsonaro lamenting the embattled former president’s “terrible treatment” at the hands of an “unjust system turned against you”.

Earlier this month, Trump also threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods starting August 1, as he called for Lula’s government to drop the charges against Bolsonaro.

Lula promised to reciprocate, saying “any measure to increase tariffs unilaterally will be responded to in light of Brazil’s Law of Economic Reciprocity”.

In Friday’s court decision, Moraes also said Trump’s threatened tariffs were an attempt to interfere in the country’s judicial system by creating a serious economic crisis in Brazil.

The tariffs – which would hurt key Brazilian sectors like coffee farming, cattle ranching and aviation – have rallied public support behind Lula’s defiant leftist government.

Brits heading on USA holidays have been warned of new legislation that will see a big change affecting the country’s tourism visa costs as experts have issued advice

Brits heading on USA holidays should take note of new changes to the country’s visa application process.

Currently, UK holidaymakers wanting to visit the USA for tourism need to apply for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), underthe Visa Waiver Program. According to the UK Foreign Office: “All Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travellers intending to enter the US by land, sea and air will be required to obtain an approved ESTA prior to application for admission at land border ports of entry.” To enter the US, your passport must be valid for the length of your planned stay.

At the time of writing, the ESTA application costs $21 and is generally valid for valid for two years from the date of authorisation, or until your passport expires, whichever comes first.

However, the US Congress has approved new legislation that includes a price hike for the ESTA from $21 to $40 – so nearly double the price.

As a result, the travel experts at Journeyscape have issued a warning for travellers, urging them to apply for the ESTA now if they have US travel plans. They explained: “While many travellers report receiving approval within minutes, ESTA applications can sometimes take up to 72 hours for approval. It’s wise to apply at least a week before your trip. However, don’t apply more than 90 days before your travel date, as the ESTA is only valid for two years, and applying too early could mean needing to renew sooner than necessary if you frequently visit the US.”

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It’s also worth double checking the information you provide – for example, making sure you match your passport information exactly including your full legal name, passport number and expiration date, and ensuring you give an updated email address as that’s where your approval notification will be sent.

Common mistakes that could see your application rejected include incorrect passport information, failing to disclose previous travel plans, or applying too close to travel dates, as if there’s an issue you may not get the document in time, and therefore you’ll be unable to travel.

They also issued advice for Brits around third party services that could leave you paying even more, explaining: Only use the official ESTA website to avoid additional fees from third-party services. The current application fee is $21, but it was recently announced that it’s set to rise to $40, nearly double the current cost. Many third-party sites charge even more, often without offering any added value.”

Once you’ve applied, the travel pros recommend checking the status of your application; if it’s pending longer than you’d expect, check there isn’t any extra information you may need to supply.

Kerry Manley, Head of Marketing at North America travel specialist Journeyscape added: “Navigating the ESTA process can indeed be smooth and hassle-free if you take a proactive approach. The key is to apply early, ideally at least a week before your departure, to account for any unexpected delays. Using the official ESTA website is crucial to avoid unnecessary fees or scams. Double-checking your details—such as passport information and travel itinerary—can prevent common mistakes that lead to denials.

“Additionally, staying informed about recent rule changes is essential, especially for travellers who may be affected by the latest restrictions, such as those related to travel history in Cuba.

“Even with a valid ESTA, remember that entry to the U.S. is ultimately determined at the border by Customs and Border Protection. Be prepared to answer questions about your travel purpose and itinerary. Following these steps will help ensure a seamless travel experience, minimising stress and maximising your trip’s success.”

You can find out more about US entry requirements on the UK Foreign Office website and on the official ESTA website.

The Senegalese women’s basketball team has scrapped plans to train in the U.S. for the upcoming AfroBasket tournament in the Ivory Coast next month after several players and team officials had their visas denied, Senegal’s prime minister said.

Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said on Facebook Thursday that the team would train in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, “in a sovereign and conducive setting.”

The West African nation’s federation said in a statement that the visa applications of five players and seven officials weren’t approved.

“Informed of the refusal of issuing visas to several members of the Senegal women’s national basketball team, I have instructed the Ministry of Sports to simply cancel the 10-day preparatory training initially planned in the United States of America,” Sonko said.

The visa denials come amid a push by the Trump administration to make countries improve vetting of travelers or face a ban on their citizens visiting the United States. Senegal wasn’t on that list of countries and it was not immediately clear why the visas were denied.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told the Associated Press that it could not comment on individual cases because visa records are confidential under U.S. law.

The travel ban includes exemptions for the World Cup, the Olympics and any “other major sporting event,” though it’s unclear what constitutes a major event.

The team is coached by Otis Hughley Jr., who previously led the Nigerian women’s basketball team. He was the men’s coach at Alabama A&M University before resigning in March.

Senegal, which was going to train in the U.S. from Sunday through July 3, has finished first or second in four of the last five AfroBasket championships over the last decade and has won 11 titles overall. The tournament determines Africa’s champion, which earns entry into the FIBA World Cup next year in Germany.

Feinberg writes for the Associated Press.

June 4 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered a suspension of international visas for new students seeking to attend Harvard University, accusing the school of failing to report “known illegal activity” carried out by its students.

In a proclamation, Trump said the suspension applies only to new nonimmigrant students who travel to the United States solely or primarily to attend the Massachusetts university. International students are allowed to enter the country to attend U.S. schools under the Student Exchange Visa Program.

Trump also gave Secretary of State Marco Rubio the authority to determine whether existing Harvard students in the country on visas should have theirs revoked.

Citing an increase in crime on the campus — which was also reported by The Harvard Crimson in 2023 — Trump said Harvard has failed in disciplinary actions. He said the school reported misconduct by three foreign students and provided “deficient” data on those incidents.

“Harvard’s actions show that it either is not fully reporting its disciplinary records for foreign students or is not seriously policing its foreign students,” Trump said.

The proclamation is the Trump administration’s latest of multiple attempts to block the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students. He has taken issue with students’ anti-Israel protests over the war in Gaza.

A spokesperson for the university told NBC News it planned to fight the administration’s order.

“This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights,” the spokesperson said.

In May, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to deny Harvard to admit international students. At the time Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem canceled the school’s SEVP certification.

“The administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,” Noem said.