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The Trump administration is halting immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, including Brazil, Iran, Russia and Somalia, in the latest and most far-reaching step yet to restrict legal immigration pathways to the United States.
The indefinite pause, which takes effect Jan. 21, is intended to limit applicants deemed likely to become a “public charge,” or someone who relies on government benefits for basic needs, according to the State Department. A full list of the affected countries has not been publicly released.
“The Trump administration is bringing an end to the abuse of America’s immigration system by those who would extract wealth from the American people,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
The move comes as the administration has accelerated efforts to curtail migration, particularly from countries President Donald Trump has labeled national security risks. Last month, the administration expanded a full or partial travel ban to citizens of 39 countries following the arrest of an Afghan immigrant charged in the November shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
In recent months, the administration has also paused all asylum cases processed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, suspended citizenship and green card processing for nationals of the initial 19 countries covered by the travel ban, and halted all immigration-related requests from Afghan nationals.
Fox News Digital first reported the visa-processing pause, citing a State Department cable sent to consular officers outlining the change.
The order applies only to immigrant visas, which allow people to permanently settle in the United States. It does not affect nonimmigrant visas, such as those for tourists and students, officials said. Immigration experts noted that temporary visitors — including fans traveling to the U.S. for World Cup soccer matches this summer — are unlikely to be affected.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, estimated the decision “will ban nearly half of all legal immigrants to the United States,” blocking roughly 315,000 people from immigrating legally over the next year.
Critics argue the policy stretches the concept of “public charge” beyond its legal and economic foundations. Undocumented immigrants — and many legal immigrants — are already ineligible for most federal benefits, though some states provide limited access to health care or food assistance.
Administration officials have framed the visa halt as part of a broader reassessment of public charge standards. In November, the Department of Homeland Security proposed scrapping public charge regulations adopted under the Biden administration in 2022, arguing those rules “hamper DHS’s ability to make accurate, precise, and reliable determinations” about whether immigrants may rely on public assistance.
Trump has long argued that immigrants strain public resources, even as multiple studies have found that immigrant labor provides long-term economic benefits to the United States.
Immigrant rights advocates condemned the decision, saying it effectively blocks legal immigration from much of the world.
“This new announcement is effectively an immigration ban on a very significant portion of the world coming to the United States,” said Elora Mukherjee, director of Columbia Law School’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic. She said the policy disproportionately targets countries where people are “overwhelmingly Brown and Black.”
The administration’s focus on public benefits has also alarmed policy analysts. Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, warned that stricter standards could deter eligible families from seeking assistance.
“The likely result will be that many immigrant families will be afraid to access any public benefits for which a household member is eligible, forgoing supports in times of need to preserve future immigration prospects,” Gelatt wrote.
Some conservative economists have also questioned the approach. Alan D. Viard, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, called tighter public charge rules “unnecessary,” arguing that immigrants who initially appear to be a fiscal burden often become net contributors over time.
The policy arrives amid heightened political rhetoric around immigration. Trump has repeatedly pointed to fraud investigations in Minnesota involving safety net programs to argue that immigrants misuse public benefits. Federal prosecutors have said Somali Americans make up a large share of defendants in those cases, a fact Trump has used to attack Somali immigrants broadly.
At a Cabinet meeting last month, Trump said he did not want Somali immigrants in the United States and referred to them as “garbage,” comments that drew condemnation from civil rights groups.
Immigration advocates are expected to challenge the visa halt in court, while administration officials have signaled further changes to public charge regulations could follow. For now, consular officers have been instructed to stop processing immigrant visas for applicants from the affected countries, leaving tens of thousands of would-be immigrants in limbo as the policy takes effect.
