State Department preparing to cancel tens of thousands of visas held by asylum seekers: Officials
In this Oct. 8, 2024, file photo, the Harry S. Truman Federal Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of State, is pictured in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The State Department announced that it is preparing to revoke tourist and business visas issued between 2016 and 2026 to foreign nationals who have sought or are actively seeking asylum in the United States, which officials say could result in the cancellation of tens of thousands of travel documents.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio’s leadership, we are making clear that a visa is a privilege — not a right. We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
“These types of visas are issued with the clear understanding that they are for those who intend to return home. Obtaining a visa in order to seek asylum is fraud — which is grounds for visa revocation,” he added. “This is an ongoing process as we uphold the integrity of our visa and asylum laws.”
The revocations are expected to happen on a rolling basis, and internal estimates suggest they could reach or exceed 200,000, according to officials familiar with the matter.
Applicants for tourist and business visas are asked to confirm that they will not apply for asylum and intend to return to their countries of origin.
The department’s plans were first reported by The Associated Press.
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau posted to social media about individuals who use visas to get into the U.S. and claim asylum.
“People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims,” Landau wrote on X. “Asylum isn’t supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law.”
It’s not clear whether any foreign nationals will be removed from the U.S. due to visa cancellations. In cases where the visa holder has an active asylum application, the claim will have to be adjudicated and denied before removal proceedings can move forward.
Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln conducts a replenishment-at-sea, Aug. 16, 2026. (US Navy)
(WASHINGTON) — The father of a sailor deployed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was released by immigration authorities Tuesday — days after his son posted about the ordeal on Facebook, an account not disputed by the Department of Homeland Security.
Joshua Aviles, the sailor, posted on Facebook on behalf of the family that his dad, Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, had been released.
“Luis has been released back to our family,” the Aviles family posted on the sailor’s Facebook page. “We are grateful for all of the support for both Luis and Josh throughout this situation. At this moment, our family is taking time to be together. While we await the return of our proud Navy sailor, we kindly ask for your understanding and respect.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the release.
Over the weekend, Joshua Aviles detailed his father’s ordeal while he was deployed in a war zone.
“I just got a call that my dad was taken by ICE. If you know my dad, you know he is a hardworking, humble man who is always willing to help anyone if he can. My dad has his driver’s license, Social Security card, and work permit,” according to a post from Joshua Aviles on Saturday. “We have done everything through immigration to get his green card approved, and we are just waiting.”
He said it is “heartbreaking.”
“I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal. My dad’s only ‘crime’ was coming to this country to give my siblings and me a better life.”
Aviles is one of a number of active-duty military whose family members have been detained by immigration agents under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
In a statement after the sailor’s initial Facebook post, DHS did not dispute the account from Aviles.
“On August 22, Border Patrol arrested Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, an illegal alien from Nicaragua, after conducting a vehicle stop in Key West, Florida. He entered the country illegally on an unknown date and location. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” according to a DHS spokesperson.
“Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws. Military service by an immediate relative does not automatically grant parole, lawful status, or immunity from immigration enforcement,” the spokesperson said. “We are simply enforcing the laws passed by Congress. This Administration does not pick and choose which laws to enforce.”
Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, sits beside defense lawyer Kathryn Nester during a preliminary court hearing before District Court Judge Tony Graf in Provo, Utah, U.S. July 7, 2026. (Utah Courts)
(PROVO, Utah) — A video compilation that prosecutors say shows conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer’s movements on the campus of Utah Valley University before and after the shooting played in court on Tuesday over the vigorous objections of defense attorneys.
Attorneys for the defendant, Tyler James Robinson, 23, argued that the video footage Judge Tony Graf allowed prosecutors to play publicly at Robinson’s preliminary hearing will likely taint a potential jury pool.
“We think this video is going to play a big role in the trial,” Robinson’s lead attorney, Kathryn Nester, told Graf during the second day of the multi-day hearing.
Defense attorney Michael Burt argued that making the video compilation public will likely prevent Robinson from getting a fair trial.
But prosecutors prevailed in their argument that the public had the right to see the video to get a clear understanding of the evidence Graf had reviewed in private.
The video compilation not only appears to put Robinson at the scene of the crime, but it also appears to track nearly every movement he allegedly made on campus, including climbing on and jumping off the roof where the fatal shot was fired, according to prosecutors.
Graf will decide if prosecutors have established probable cause to warrant a trial for Robinson. Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty if Robinson goes to trial and is convicted in the September 2025 killing of Kirk during an open-air rally on the Orem, Utah, campus.
The compilation of raw video footage was taken from security cameras on the university campus, Sgt. David Hull of the Utah Department of Public Safety testified on Tuesday.
Graf also ruled that an enhanced version of the same video compilation featuring zoomed-in portions allegedly showing Robinson lying in a prone position on the roof of the UVU Losee Center, where the shot was fired, would not be made public at the preliminary hearing.
Utah prosecutors said the video is part of a mountain of evidence against Robinson
Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of the conservative youth movement Turning Point USA and a strong ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025, while holding the first stop of his “The American Comeback Tour.”
Kirk was at an amphitheater on the UVU campus taking a question about gun violence in America when a single shot rang out from a distance away, hitting him in the left side of his neck.
For the second day in a row, Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and his parents, Robert and Kathryn Kirk, attended the hearing, along with President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who was friends with Kirk.
During his testimony on Tuesday, Sgt. Hull said that on the day of the shooting, Robinson was seen on video making at least three visits to the campus in a car and on foot.
Hull testified that the campus officer, using what he described as “cop intuition,” took down the license plate number of Robinson’s car, which he said later helped investigators identify Robinson as the suspect in the shooting.
Hull testified that the campus officer, using what he described as “cop intuition,” took down the license plate number of Robinson’s car, which later helped investigators identify Robinson as the suspect in the shooting.
One of the videos in the compilation allegedly showed Robinson walking into a wooded area near the campus and reemerging on campus, apparently after changing his clothes, Hull testified. Police later said they discovered the rifle used in the shooting, a Mauser .30-06, in the same wooded area where Robinson was seen going to and from.
Another video apparently captured Robinson walking with a limp up a staircase leading to the roof of the Losee Center. Investigators have previously alleged that Robinson had concealed the weapon in his pant leg as he headed to where he allegedly shot Kirk.
Robinson surrendered to authorities on the night of Sept. 11, 2025, after his father contacted law enforcement officials and told them he recognized his son in photographs of the suspect released by authorities, officials said.
The defendant has been charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child.
Robinson has yet to enter a plea to the charges, and his attorneys have not issued any statements on his guilt or innocence.
In this Dec. 3, 2019, file photo, Jack Avery of Why Don’t We performs onstage during 106.1 KISS FM’s Jingle Ball 2019 at Dickies Arena in Dallas, Texas. (Cooper Neill/Getty Images for iHeartMedia, FILE)
(LOS ANGELES) — A social media influencer is accused of plotting to kill a pop singer in an alleged murder-for-hire conspiracy that prosecutors say stemmed from a “bitter custody dispute” over their daughter.
The influencer, 24-year-old Gabriela Gonzalez, allegedly conspired with her father and then-boyfriend to hire a hitman to kill Jack Avery, the father of her 7-year-old daughter, several years ago, prosecutors in Los Angeles County said in a press release this week.
Avery, 26, is a former member of the boy band Why Don’t We, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed in a press release.
Sometime between 2020 and 2021, Gabriela Gonzalez allegedly sought the help of her boyfriend at the time, 26-year-old Kai Cordrey, to hire someone on the dark web to kill Avery, prosecutors said.
She allegedly repeatedly told one witness that she wanted Avery dead and discussed hiring a hitman and that the “intended killing was discussed as occurring in Los Angeles and being made to look like a car accident,” the warrant for her father’s arrest stated.
Her father, 59-year-old Francisco Gonzalez, was “deeply involved in the custody conflict” and was the alleged source of the funds for the murder-for-hire plot, according to his arrest warrant.
Francisco Gonzalez allegedly sent Cordrey $10,000 back in April 2021 “as front money to use in locating, hiring and paying someone to kill Avery,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release on Tuesday.
Two months later, Francisco Gonzalez allegedly sent Cordrey another $4,000 “after the alleged hit man asked for the additional funds,” the office said.
“Several days later, Cordrey allegedly requested that Avery be killed within a couple of days,” prosecutors said.
Cordrey spoke to an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman about the alleged murder-for-hire plot in September 2021, during which he allegedly said Avery was the target and “discussed payment and proof of death,” prosecutors said.
“In a subsequent conversation, Cordrey allegedly told the purported hitman that Gabriela Gonzalez wanted the murder to happen and Francisco Gonzalez could pay for the expense,” prosecutors said.
Gabriela Gonzalez, her father and Cordrey have been charged with one count each of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation of murder.
Gabriela Gonzalez was arrested on Monday and is being held on no bail, online jail records show. She was arraigned on Tuesday. Attorney information was not immediately available.
Her father was arrested in Florida and is awaiting extradition to Los Angeles County. Court records show he is being represented by a public defender. ABC News has reached out to the public defender’s office for comment.
It is unclear if Cordrey is in custody at this time.
If convicted as charged, all three face 25 years to life in state prison.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the FBI began the “lengthy investigation” before the case was turned over to his office.
“This is a case where the defendants are accused of going to great lengths to find someone to commit murder,” Hochman said in a statement. “Most fathers raise their children to respect the law, but here we have a dad who allegedly helped his daughter and her boyfriend break the law in the most sinister way imaginable.”
Gabrielle Gonzalez has nearly 1 million followers between her Instagram and TikTok accounts.
Her father has a law practice in Seminole County. His firm had no comment on his charges.
ABC News has reached out to Avery for comment.
In an interview on “The Zach Sang Show” last year, Avery said two FBI agents showed up at his residence and that “someone hired someone to kill me.” He did not publicly identify any suspects.
He said he was “traumatized.”
“I stayed in my house for like a month straight. I didn’t leave,” Avery said during the interview. “I was so scared. I was looking out my window every night.”
