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.
A tropical depression that formed in the Gulf off the west coast of Florida, July 19, 2026, is expected to become Tropical Storm Bertha. (Sadik Demiroz/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A tropical storm watch is in effect Monday for parts of the Gulf Coast after a tropical depression formed over the weekend and is expected to become Tropical Storm Bertha late Monday or Monday night.
The National Hurricane Center said it is closely monitoring what is currently Tropical Depression Two, which formed Sunday.
The tropical storm watch has been issued from the Florida panhandle to the southeast Louisiana coast, including Panama City and Pensacola, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and Gulfport, Mississippi.
Tropical storm conditions, including strong winds and rain, are possible in the watch area by late Monday.
As of 11 a.m. ET Monday the tropical depression was a weak and disorganized system centered about 120 miles south of Panama City and drifting northwest at 3 mph with maximum sustained winds of about 35 mph. A tropical storm is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 39 mph to 73 mph.
After the depression becomes a storm, it’s expected to slowly strengthen over the next few days and move mostly parallel to or along the Gulf Coast. The latest forecast puts the system near or south of New Orleans by Wednesday.
The storm could impact the Louisiana coast and the areas of southeast Texas on Wednesday and into Thursday. Tropical storm conditions will be possible from New Orleans to Houston.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible across Florida on Monday and into Monday night, mostly along the Gulf Coast and panhandle.
A possible storm surge of 1 to 3 feet could impact the area from Indian Pass, Florida, located about two hours southwest of Tallahassee, to the Chassahowitzka River, about 90 minutes north of Clearwater on the Gulf coast. The rough surf could produce life-threatening rip currents.
From Monday evening through Wednesday, thunderstorm activity is expected to shift toward southern Alabama and Mississippi. Widespread rainfall of 2 to 4 inches is expected in the area along the Gulf Coast through Friday, with isolated totals up to 8 inches possible.
Alaskan authorizes said a brown bear attacked a hiker on July 18, 2026, in Bear Valley, Alaska. (Anchorage Police)
(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — A woman is recovering after she was attacked by a brown bear while hiking through an Alaskan trail over the weekend, Alaskan authorities said.
The unidentified victim was hiking on a trail above Bear Valley, a neighborhood in south Anchorage, with another person and three dogs Saturday around 5:30 p.m. when the bear came out of the trees and encountered the pair and their dogs, the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game said.
“High winds and inclement weather conditions at the time of the encounter may have increased the chance that the bear was surprised by the hikers and their dogs, even if they were making noise,” the agency said in a statement.
The bear ran off, and first responders found the woman with non-life-threatening injuries, the Anchorage Police Department said. She was carried out of the trail and transported to a local hospital, according to the police.
Police used a drone to track the bear and ensure it was not coming back as they got the hikers and dogs to safety.
Saturday’s attack took place more than a week after another woman was attacked by a bear on the front porch of her Alaskan home just as she was leaving with her dogs.
The unidentified woman took out a shotgun to try to scare away the adult bear and its two cubs from her dog but was attacked and hospitalized on July 9, according to the authorities.
The bears ran away after being scared off by another person.
Elijah McClain in an undated photo. (Family photo)
(NEW YORK) — The Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the convictions of two former Aurora paramedics, who were convicted in December 2023 of criminally negligent homicide in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old unarmed Black man who was walking home from a convenience store.
In reversing the convictions, the judge ruled on Thursday that the case should be sent back to the district court for a possible retrial.
McClain’s case gained national attention, particularly in the wake of the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, becoming one of the prominent cases that fueled Black Lives Matter protests across the country.
Sheneen McClain, Elijah McClain’s mother, reacted to the reversal of the convictions in a post on social media on Thursday, calling the move “corrupt and cowardly.”
“I am not surprised by the denial of true justice for American citizens in the hands of government branches who allow criminal behaviors in their police agencies,” she wrote. “They are corrupt and cowardly.”
ABC News has reached out to attorneys for the paramedics, Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper, for comment.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser told ABC News in a statement that his office stands by its decision to charge the paramedics and “is committed to defending these convictions through the appeals. Justice demands it.”
ABC News reached out to Weiser’s office for further comment.
The charges
Cichuniec and Cooper were accused of administering an excessive amount of ketamine to sedate McClain after an encounter with police on Aug. 24, 2019.
Cichuniec and Cooper were found guilty of criminally negligent homicide on Dec. 23, 2023. Cichuniec was also convicted of assault in the second-degree via the unlawful administration of drugs. Cooper was acquitted of the assault charge in 2023, and they both pleaded not guilty at trial.
The appeals court ruling upheld Cichuniec’s assault conviction, but reversed the negligent homicide conviction.
Cooper was sentenced in 2024 to a four-year probationary sentence for negligent homicide. Meanwhile, Cichuniec was sentenced to five years in prison with a three-year period of parole for the assault charge and one year to be served concurrently on the negligent homicide charge.
Cichuniec and Cooper separately appealed their convictions.
In Thursday’s ruling, the appeals court agreed with Cooper’s defense team that the lower court “misled” jurors by failing to clarify the standard of care applicable to the charge of criminally negligent homicide after jurors asked the court for a definition.
“By telling the jurors to apply the ‘common and ordinary meanings’ of the words in the instruction, the court failed to shine any light on the issue and in fact misled the jurors as to the applicable standard of care: The proper standard wasn’t that of a generic reasonable person but of a person in Cooper’s profession under the existing circumstances,” the ruling reads.
The judge ruled that the reversal of Cooper’s conviction also applies to Cichuniec because they were both tried together in that case.
“The two were tried on identical theories of guilt and the evidence against them was, while not identical, sufficiently similar that we can’t conclude that the errors were harmless as to Cichuniec,” the ruling says.
What happened to Elijah McClain?
McClain was confronted by police while walking home from a convenience store after a 911 caller told authorities they had seen someone “sketchy” in the area.
McClain was unarmed and wearing a ski mask at the time. His family says he had anemia, a blood condition that can make people feel cold more easily.
When officers arrived on the scene, they told McClain they had a right to stop him because he was “being suspicious.”
In police body camera footage, McClain can be heard telling police he was going home, and that “I have a right to go where I am going.”
Officer Nathan Woodyard placed McClain in a carotid, or choke, hold and he and the other two officers on the scene moved McClain by force to the grass and restrained him.
When Cooper and Cichuniec arrived, McClain was given a shot of 500 milligrams of ketamine to sedate him and he was loaded into an ambulance where he had a heart attack, according to investigators.
McClain died on Aug. 30, 2019, three days after doctors pronounced him brain dead and he was removed from life support, officials said.
Former police officer Randy Roedema was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and assault in the third degree in McClain’s death. He was sentenced to more than one year in the county jail in January.
Two other officers, Jason Rosenblatt and Woodyard, were found not guilty on charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Rosenblatt was also acquitted on charges of assault in the second degree.
