The Trump administration on Saturday took a decisive move regarding visas that has, unsurprisingly, spurred heated controversy on the left.
As Fox News reports, the State Department revealed that it was suspending the issuance of visitor visas from individuals hailing from Gaza until a full review of the process can be completed, a proclamation that has Democrats crying foul.
The abrupt change emerged in a post on the State Department’s X account, sparking a flood of online commentary and critique.
“All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,” the post explained.
The move was not accompanied by additional immediate indications of what sparked the crackdown, either from the State Department itself or from its leader, Marco Rubio.
However, critics of the administration have suggested that the decision was prompted by complaints lodged by conservative commentator Laura Loomer about the entry of Palestinians under the special visas, as NBC News reports.
In the wake of the State Department’s decision, Loomer praised the result on X, saying, “This is fantastic news. Thank you @SecRubio for your prompt response to this invasion of our country by NGOS that have been accused of being pro-HAMAS,” adding, “There are doctors in other countries. The US is not the world’s hospital!”
Support for Rubio’s decision will assuredly be found among Republican lawmakers who expressed alarm about Loomer’s initial reporting.
When made aware of the arrival of Gazans under the specialized visas, Rep. Chip Roy (TX) vowed to investigate the situation, while Rep. Randy Fine (FL) declared the situation a “national security risk.”
On the other side of the issue were groups such as The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which said that the exclusion of Gazans from visa availability was indicative of Trump administration “intentional cruelty.”
According to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, the move will result in the denial of access to critical care needed by sick and wounded Gazan children.
The organization stated, “This policy will have a devastating and irreversible impact on our ability to bring injured and critically ill children from Gaza to the United States for lifesaving medical treatment -- a mission that has defined our work for more than 30 years.”
That outrage aside, the United States is not alone in exercising new caution when it comes to bringing Gazans into the country, with France having suspended evacuations from the war-torn area earlier in August after a Palestinian student it had admitted on a visa shared an image of Adolf Hitler advocating for the murder of Jews, as Fox News noted.
At the time, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot declared that the student at issue needed to “leave the country” and that she had “no place” in France, expressing sentiments surely shared by Americans wary of importing anti-Semitism into the country under the guise of humanitarian aid that can arguably, as Loomer contends, be provided elsewhere.
