Trump is Weaponizing Visas to Bend Foreigners to His Will

While the world worries about the repercussions of the reciprocal tariffs that Trump has thrown at the world, he is quietly making his next move. Yesterday, in response to the South Sudanese government's refusal to take back its citizens deported from America, the Trump administration unilaterally revoked the US entry visas of all South Sudanese citizens, irrespective of their personal stance on their home country's government. With the attention of governments and investors the world over fixated on his Liberation Day, he is opening a new front on his determination to bend the world to his will.

The latest move against the South Sudanese is but the most egregious in a set of actions that together seek to normalize the weaponization of visas. When pro-Palestinian protests broke out across American college campuses, the Trump administration worked to identify non-citizen participants and then revoke their student visas on national security grounds. Freedom of speech, supposedly entrenched in the US Constitution and campus culture across the country, now has a distinct political dimension. Those who want to stay in the US must self-censor and toe the administration's foreign policy stance.

However, the South Sudan fiasco is a clear escalation, even with this questionable logic. Some may argue that the student protestors deserve to be deported as they made a conscious choice to speak out in ways that they knew went against the administration's stance. The many South Sudanese in America did not even have a choice. Even though the majority said nothing about the deportation and no doubt has little sway over government decision-making, they become collateral damage in a foreign policy issue not of their own making. 

The message from the Trump Administration is clear and dangerous. Foreign governments that want to ensure their citizens have the opportunity to enter and stay in the US need to prioritize American interests over their own. A foreign government in fear thus grants the US government sweeping powers over foreign policies. Tariffs may push some to diversify trade and invest more in the US, but visa cancellations can be about much more than just economic policymaking. Any stance the US government does not fancy can not be retaliated at an individual level, upending innocent lives.

Foreigners in the US now have a new source of anxiety. Many governments worldwide do not see eye-to-eye with the US government. Even among supposed treaty allies of the US, national interests diverge, and there will necessarily be instances when one country's policies have to come at the expense of American ones. It is politically unfeasible for other countries to constantly align themselves with the US without angering their domestic audience. Non-citizens in America now have to nervously watch over each source of contention between governments, hoping that conflicts do not end in deportations.

The resulting uncertainties will make the US less attractive as a destination for immigrants. Hundreds of thousands go to America to study in its universities, knowing that they have the opportunity to advance their careers over decades in its dynamic companies. American companies hire the best and the brightest from around the world, knowing that many will stick around for years to turn the initial work visas into a permanent residency or US citizenship. Now that Trump can simply revoke visas for people he does not like, that long-term planning has gone out of the window.

Perhaps decades from now, historians will look at the visa revocations as the straw that broke the back of American unipolarity. The US's exceptional success as an economic power over the past decades has been due to taking in millions contributing to its business and technological innovation. Neither deporting millions of unskilled illegal immigrants nor putting up barriers to foreign imports fundamentally change the allure of America, beckoning millions to game the system to partake in its dynamism. But if the hard-to-get visas can be taken away at any time, why try so hard in the first place?

Unfortunately, no country will ever be as welcoming to highly skilled immigrants as pre-Trump America was. Yet, as the US so willingly shooes away foreign talent through a threat of any-time deportation, the emerging multipolar economic order may also lead to a more diversified view toward migration. Those who want to find greener pastures no longer need to be set on the US as the ultimate goal. Instead, they can be much more nuanced in their considerations and journeys. Whether it be considering opportunities in the global South, linking purpose with where to go, or going back and forth among different countries, a whole host of new ideas may emerge, thanks to Trump's capriciousness.