12 MARCH-APRIL 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL The policy builds on a November 2025 directive that expanded financial self-sufficiency requirements and directed posts to apply more comprehensive vetting, including assessments of applicants’ finances, health, education, skills, family status, and prior use of public benefits. The suspension affects countries across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, the Balkans, and the Caribbean, specifically Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Somalia, and Nigeria. Nonimmigrant visas for tourist and business travel are not affected; demand for those is expected to rise ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. Secretary Marco Rubio said the action is aimed at preventing fraud and abuse of public benefits programs and ending what the administration describes as exploitation of the U.S. immigration system. A separate cable to U.S. embassies and consulates also directed officers to more closely scrutinize nonimmigrant visa applicants for potential reliance on public benefits. Those critical of the directive argue that the pause significantly restricts the organizations “redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas,” or otherwise harmful to U.S. sovereignty and prosperity. He said the administration would end the flow of U.S. taxpayer funding and diplomatic support to institutions deemed inconsistent with U.S. interests. Rubio added that the administration views the current multilateral system as having evolved into “a sprawling architecture of global governance,” often driven by ideological agendas on issues such as climate and gender policy and detached from national interests. He said the United States would continue to pursue cooperation where it advances U.S. priorities but would disengage from institutions it considers irrelevant or counterproductive. Critics have warned that the withdrawals could reduce U.S. influence in shaping global norms and standards, while administration officials argue the move aligns U.S. diplomacy and resources more closely with national sovereignty, fiscal restraint, and strategic purpose. U.S. Suspends Immigrant Visas for 75 Countries The Trump administration has suspended immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries, a directive that began on January 21, 2025. The move is part of a broader administration effort to reduce both legal and illegal immigration pathways. Under guidance issued by the department, consular officers have been instructed to halt immigrant visa applications while Washington reassesses screening procedures to prevent the admission of individuals deemed likely to become a “public charge.” legal immigration. The State Department has touted on social media that the administration has already revoked more than 100,000 visas since Trump returned to office and expanded social media and background screening. A lawsuit against State and Secretary Rubio was filed February 2 by a coalition of immigration groups to overturn the order suspending IV approvals from the 75 countries. Trump National Security Strategy Recasts Europe On December 4, 2025, President Donald Trump released a new National Security Strategy (NSS) that marks a sharp break with decades of U.S. foreign policy, recentering national security around sovereignty, migration control, and regional preeminence rather than global leadership and alliance management. The document warns that Europe faces “civilizational erasure” driven by migration and demographic change. It argues that European governments are pursuing unrealistic policies on Ukraine and Russia that do not reflect public opinion. While reaffirming U.S. support An Opportunity to Close a Tragic Chapter 50 Years Ago Several weeks before, I had left Saigon on one of the last helicopters, anguished and angered over the failure of the embassy to extricate the majority of the Vietnamese who worked for us. Now, suddenly, there was an opportunity to participate in the last act of that tragedy, an opportunity to help in the resettlement of over 130,000 Vietnamese who had succeeded in fleeing to the United States. There was, in other words, an opportunity to help end this piece of history on an affirmative note. —Foreign Service Officer Alan Carter, “The Indo-Chinese Refugee Program— A View from a Camp,” in the April 1976 edition of The Foreign Service Journal.
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