State Dept. Freezing Visa Processing for 75 Countries
“The pause impacts dozens of countries – including Somalia, Haiti, Iran, and Eritrea – whose immigrants often become public charges on the United States upon arrival.”
The State Department has paused visa processing for 75 countries beginning on January 21.
The move stems from fraud schemes originating in Minnesota.
“The State Department will pause immigrant visa processing from 75 countries whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates,” the department wrote on X. “The freeze will remain active until the U.S. can ensure that new immigrants will not extract wealth from the American people.”
The move expands on the instructions sent to embassies around the world sent in November, months before the exposure of the fraud in Minnesota, which told officials “to deny visas to applicants deemed likely to rely on public benefits, weighing a wide range of factors including health, age, English proficiency, finances and even potential need for long-term medical care.”
Fox News viewed the memo, which includes the countries of Afghanistan, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia, Somalia, Thailand, and Yemen.
“The pause impacts dozens of countries – including Somalia, Haiti, Iran, and Eritrea – whose immigrants often become public charges on the United States upon arrival,” added the department.
The administration believes that residents of those countries will likely need public assistance.
Let’s look at Somali immigrant data in Minnesota from the Center for Immigration Studies (emphasis mine):
- More than half (52 percent) of children in Somali immigrant homes in Minnesota live in poverty, while only 8 percent of children in native-headed homes are in poverty.
- One in eight children in poverty in Minnesota lives in a Somali immigrant home.
- About 39 percent of working-age Somalis have no high school diploma, compared to just 5 percent of natives.
- Among working-age adult Somalis who have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years, half still cannot speak English “very well”.
- About 54 percent of Somali-headed households in Minnesota receive food stamps, and 73 percent of Somali households have at least one member on Medicaid. The comparable figures for native households are 7 percent and 18 percent.
- Nearly every Somali household with children (89 percent) receives some form of welfare.
- Although Somalis have recently been implicated in welfare fraud, any population with poverty rates as high as theirs will qualify for extensive means-tested aid. The best way to reduce immigrant consumption of welfare is not simply to crack down on fraud, but to reduce the number of new arrivals who have low earning power.
Yeah, that data came out in December 2025.
I bet leftists will run to the courts over this move.
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Comments
The third world is no longer welcome. They can work harder to make their own countries better.
Add India til the H1Bs are resolved
Unfortunately this only applies to immigration visas, not work visas or tourist visas… which is goofy b/c a third ish of illegal aliens are visa over stays who entered the USA legally on a non immigrant visa of some type.
Yeah you can resolve H1Bs by cancelling the program. The workers aren’t better. They displace Americans and are used to depress American wages. Those that rise to the manager level tend to hire from their own nationality, especially Indians. Kill the program except for those that are true geniuses.
Only hiring your own ethnicity is discriminatory, isn’t it?
It is. It is also part of a kickback scheme common in India and ported over here where the hired gives part of their salary to the hiring manager.
Really… Thais are over-represented on the welfare rolls?
Where’s that stereotypical Asian intensity?
I’m going to have to go back and review Ali Wong’s dissertation on Fancy Asians and Jungle Asians.
Or maybe we actually follow through on the spirit of the public charge rule which was intended to prevent welfare support to aliens. Make it simple, no eligibility for any federal program or any State administered program which receives federal funding. No qualification or grant of eligibility by default due to a grant of eligibility from any other program; every separate program gotta handle their own eligibility check. If some clerk is rubber stamping approvals then put them on the financial hook to repay along with their supervisor all the way up the chain to the program director/manager. Not dischargable by bankruptcy and it is 1st priority of payment with garnishment at 25% of income. Seize and sell their assets to include their wife’s engagement ring and their children’s phone and computers. No immigrant should get any gov benefits of any kind with the sole exception of naturalized citizens at SSA retirement age who have paid into SSA with the minimum 10 year work history post naturalization.
Aliens aren’t eligible. The problem is that their children born here, who are US citizens, are eligible. The fix seems simple. Make the rule that no children are ever eligible for any benefits; instead, the benefits should go their parents or guardians — not on the child’s behalf but in their own right. That way if the parent is an alien they will not be eligible.
36.7% of Thai immigrants are receiving welfare in 2026. Sadly, although this seems high to me, it is much much lower than for immigrants from many other countries See the published list for 120 countries at the link below
Immigrant Welfare Recipient Rates by Country of Origin.
https://x.com/america/status/2007871247519289637
Apparently, everyone has their own sacred cow they defend.
Amazing to have a pro-U.S. immigration policy imposed at the federal level, that doesn’t passively sit by (or, actively enable) the admittance, en masse, of sundry anti-American agitators, subversives, thieves and miscreants, to support Muslim terrorism and to fleece American taxpayers, dry.
Okay now freeze visa processing for the rest of the world unless some American is willing to support a potential immigrant and put up a hefty bond to that effect. We’re all full up here. There are plenty of countries that aren’t.
Yep. Require a no kidding Sponsor; A US Citizen who assumes full financial liability to include civil penalties and criminal penalties for that individual… and the Sponsor gets one opportunity with Naturalized Citizens unable to become a sponsor. Homeboy gets a traffic citation or any judgement or other liability and doesn’t pay? Go to the Sponsor and shake him down for payment and if he can’t/won’t then seize the assets of the sponsor, sell them off. Not dischargable in a bankruptcy. Heck sell the remaining debt to the mob for 10 cents on the $ and let them get inventive with entrepreneurial spirit to recover the balance.
What happened to requiring a sponsor for an alien entering the United States who would be on the hook for their sponsoree’s behavior?
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Argue – hit down button, meant up. Sorry.
This is the legacy of the Immigration Act of 1965, where Ted Kennedy worked to lower standards for immigration. The following demonstrates why so many legal immigrants are a drain on the system. Illegals aliens will ALLWAYS be a drain on the system, particularly when they are actively encouraged to enter the U.S. with impunity by Demsocialist presidents and inebriated “border czars.”
To wit: (all abused by the Dem socialists)
“Not all legal immigrants need sponsors, but many do depending on their immigration category.
Family-based immigrants typically require a sponsor, usually a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident relative, who files Form I-864, an enforceable affidavit of support.
This sponsor must meet income requirements (generally 125% of the federal poverty level) and agrees to financially support the immigrant and repay certain public benefits used.
However, many legal immigrants do not have sponsors, including:
Refugees and asylees, who are granted status due to persecution and often arrive with no family or resources.
Employment-based immigrants, such as those admitted under the 1990 Immigration Act or Diversity Visa program.
Individuals granted amnesty under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), who were not required to have sponsors.
Self-petitioners, such as victims of domestic violence (under the Violence Against Women Act), trafficking survivors, or special immigrant juveniles.
These individuals are not required to have a sponsor and may be eligible for public benefits without the sponsor’s income being counted against them. The requirement for sponsorship depends on the specific immigration pathway.”
Who is a refugee needs to be really tightened. It is exploited too often. No economic refugees should be allowed … period. Political refugees must be a opposition politician in a country with a repressive government. While you’re at it no socialists or communists need apply.