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The Department of Homeland Security will update its visa policy to prevent trans women from traveling to the US and taking part in elite women’s sporting events.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services issued guidance intended to obtain a “extraordinary ability” visa intended to obtain a “extraordinary ability” visa intended to obtain a “extraordinary ability” visa for trans female athletes, as first reported on the conservative news website The Daily Wire. This guidance is built from the president of executive orders issued early in the presidency, intended to compete with trans women in the sports of women.
This guidance refers to “male athletes” who try to compete in female sports rather than using the term transgender or referring to trans women.
USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement that the agency “closes loopholes for foreign male athletes where the only opportunity to acquire elite sports is to change gender identity and exploit the biological benefits to women.”
“It is a matter of safety, fairness, respect and truth for only female athletes to receive a visa to participate in women’s sports,” Tragesser said in a statement. “The Trump administration is standing up for a quiet majority who were victims of a disparate leftist policy.”
Policy updates apply to three visa categories for individuals with “extraordinary abilities” in science, arts, education, business, or athletics. It also affects exemptions from national interests. This allows applicants to exempt green card labor certification if they can demonstrate that their work is useful in the national interest.
The updated guidance makes it clear that USCIS “determines whether or not male athletes are at the top of the sport, the fact that male athletes compete with women as a negative factor.”
The guidance adds that waives the labor certification requirements for trans female athletes is not in the US national interest.
USCIS did not respond to requests for comment on the number of people who may be affected by the new policy or whether there are recent examples of trans female athletes traveling to the US under the affected visa categories.
According to the association, the nonprofit organization, a nonprofit that regulates university athletics, has around 25,000 international student athletes compete in NCAA sports for a total of over 500,000 people, more than 500,000 each year. It is unclear how many NCAA athletes there are, but the association’s president, Charlie Baker, told a Senate committee in December that he knew people under the age of 10.
The USCIS policy update may have affected athletes planning to travel to Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Olympics. However, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee banned trans women from competing in women’s sports last month.
Only a handful of trans athletes have competed in the Olympics. Weightlifter’s Laurel Hubbard became the first trans athlete to compete in the Olympics at the Tokyo Games in 2021, but she did not win a medal. American skateboarder Alana Smith and Canadian soccer star Quinn also competed in the Tokyo game, and Quinn became the first non-binary and trans athlete that year when the team won gold.
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