The U.S. State Department confirmed active enforcement of visa restrictions for individuals responsible for religious persecution abroad.
Mark Walker, U.S. principal adviser for global religious freedom, said the U.S. is following through on its commitment to restrict visas for perpetrators of religious persecution abroad.
In December 2025,?Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced restriction of U.S. visas under the Immigration and Nationality Act for "those who have directed, authorized, funded, significantly supported, or carried out violations of religious freedom," Walker said in an April 10 post. "We have already executed on this policy and we will continue to subject perpetrators to additional scrutiny."
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"If you engage in persecution, you are not welcome in America. The United States is safer when we keep those responsible for?religious persecution from entering our homeland," he said.
Rubio said in a Dec. 3, 2025, statement: "The United States is taking decisive action in response to the mass killings and violence against Christians by radical Islamic terrorists, Fulani ethnic militias, and other violent actors in Nigeria and beyond."
Rubio said the policy would hold accountable "individuals who have directed, authorized, significantly supported, participated in, or carried out violations of religious freedom and, where appropriate, their immediate family members."
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
