Trump set to revoke 200,000 visas. And the Supreme Court restricts postal voting

The administration of Donald Trump is preparing to revoke the visas – for business and tourism – of around 200,000 foreign nationals who have applied for or are currently applying for asylum. If implemented, the measure would represent the largest mass revocation of visas in US history and would likely face legal challenges. According to reports from various US media outlets, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called visasB1 and B2, issued between 2016 and 2026 to holders who have applied for or are applying for asylum.

The revocation of visas would not necessarily result in immediate deportation. Most people with ongoing asylum applications would have their status reclassified, but would lose their status as business or tourist travellers. Earlier this month, the State Department announced that it had revoked more than 175,000 visas held by foreign nationals since Trump’s return to the White House. The President has made the crackdown on immigration one of his key policies in the name of ‘national security’, but humanitarian organisations argue that the crackdown has violated freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial, creating a climate of fear, particularly for ethnic minorities.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court has given the green light to Trump’s decision to restrict postal voting, overturning a lower court’s ruling that had blocked his executive order on the matter. This is a pet project of the tycoon, who is convinced that this method ‘encourages fraud’ despite the fact that he himself used it in the Florida primaries a week ago. The six conservative judges granted an urgent request from the Department of Justice to suspend the injunction issued in June in Boston following the lawsuit brought by 23 Democratic-led states.

The three liberal justices dissented. However, the ruling by the US Supreme Court leaves open the possibility of an appeal before the November vote. The executive order, issued by Trump in March, required the Department of Homeland Security to compile and send to the states a list of US citizens eligible to vote.