Enforce visa sanctions on countries that refuse deportees
What the document says“Visa sanctions under section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act”
Section 243(d) allows the suspension of visa issuance to countries that will not take back their nationals who have been ordered removed from the United States. The chapter says it should be quickly and fully enforced, that sanctions should cover immigrant visas, non-immigrant visas or all visas, and that they should stay until the country accepts all its removal-pending nationals and commits to future acceptance.
What the document actually says“Visa sanctions under section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act”
One law lets America stop giving visas to a country. Use it fully.
Some countries will not take back their own people. The law lets America stop giving them visas. The book says to use that power fully.
Protecting the American People Against Invasion
2025-01-20 · 90 FR 8443
Section 13 directs the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to cooperate and effectively implement the sanctions provided by section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to the maximum extent permitted by law, to ensure that diplomatic efforts and negotiations with foreign states include those states' acceptance of nationals subject to removal, and to eliminate documentary barriers, dilatory tactics and other restrictions preventing prompt repatriation, with a state's failure or delay in verifying identity counted in applying the sanction. The rest of the passage is not carried out: the order names no country, does not say whether a sanction should cover immigrant visas, non-immigrant visas or all visas, sets no condition that a sanction remain in force until the country accepts every national pending removal and commits to future acceptance, and qualifies the direction with the phrases as appropriate and to the maximum extent permitted by law.
The order tells two cabinet heads to use visa bans on states that will not take back their people. They must also press those states in talks and clear away delays. But no country is named. The order does not say which visas are hit. Nor does it say how long a ban lasts, and the wording is softened by the words as appropriate.
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the United States with theft, and for other purposes
2025-01-29 · 139 Stat. 3
Section 3(c) adds a new subsection (e) to section 243 of the Immigration and Nationality Act giving a state attorney general or other authorized state officer standing to sue the Secretary of State in federal district court for injunctive relief over a violation of the requirement in subsection (d) to discontinue granting visas, with the court instructed to expedite the case and financial harm above $100 counted as harm. The sanction the chapter wants enforced becomes enforceable by states rather than resting on the Secretary's own decision. The Act leaves the sanction itself unchanged: it requires no country to be sanctioned, sets no scope for the visa categories covered, and fixes no duration.
The law lets a state sue the government over visas. Before, it was up to one official whether to cut them off. The rule itself does not change. No country must be named, and no time limit is set.
7 agency rules
- Alien Registration Form and Evidence of RegistrationHomeland Security Department · March 12, 2025
- Imposition and Collection of Civil Penalties for Certain Immigration-Related ViolationsHomeland Security Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Justice Department, Executive Office for Immigration Review · June 27, 2025
- Visas: Visa Bond Pilot ProgramState Department · August 5, 2025
- Codification of Certain U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Law Enforcement AuthoritiesHomeland Security Department · September 5, 2025
- Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupations in the United StatesLabor Department, Employment and Training Administration · October 2, 2025
- Visas: Visa Bond ProgramState Department · August 3, 2026
- Regulatory Changes Required by the Energy Security and Lightering Independence Act of 2022Homeland Security Department · August 11, 2026
Each of these names the order above in its own summary, preamble or filing. That is a fact about the document, not a finding that it carries out this proposal: it is one step further away than the order is, and what it does about the proposal is a reading nobody has made here.