The United States Department of State on Thursday announced a new visa restriction policy targeting foreign nationals accused of supporting, financing, recruiting for, or facilitating activities linked to far-left terrorist and aligned groups.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the policy, saying the measures are intended to prevent individuals who support or enable political violence from entering the United States.
“Today, State Department is imposing new visa restrictions to bar Far-Left Terrorists from entering our country. Foreigners who finance, incite, or aid and abet Far-Left Terrorists are enemies of our civilisation. They are not welcome in the United States,” Rubio said in a post on X.
Part of broader US government effort to disrupt ‘political violence’
The State Department said the policy supports National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 and broader US government efforts to disrupt networks involved in political violence before they escalate into criminal activity, according to US Department of State.
According to the department, the restrictions will apply to members of “far-left terrorist and aligned groups” who have supported or incited acts of terrorism, backed violent criminal activity, participated in economic sabotage, financed or recruited individuals for violent actions, provided logistical support, or helped coordinate networks engaged in violence.
The restrictions are being implemented under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorises the US to deny entry to foreign nationals whose presence could have serious adverse foreign policy consequences.
‘Most essential duty of the State’: Rubio
The announcement followed a State Department ministerial on the resurgence of political terrorism, attended by representatives from 67 countries, according to a State Department spokesperson.
Addressing the gathering in Washington, Rubio said protecting a nation’s people and territory was the foremost responsibility of any government.
“The most essential duty of the state – the first responsibility, frankly, of any government of any kind – is the protection of its people, is the protection of its country,” Rubio said.
He said that while the United States and its allies had long concentrated their counterterrorism efforts on traditional threats, political violence by far-left extremist groups had not received enough attention.
“For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left,” Rubio added.
Rubio alleged that far-left terrorist groups use violence as a political tool, including intimidation, coordinated campaigns, bombings and other criminal acts aimed at influencing political outcomes.
“Far-left terrorist and aligned groups often use sophisticated, organised networks to perpetrate violence as a political tool – seeking to implement an extreme political vision through intimidation and coordinated campaigns of terror,” the State Department said in its policy announcement.
Rubio also said the threat posed by such groups had become increasingly transnational and required closer international cooperation.
“This is an international conference because we are facing an international – we are facing a transnational threat,” Rubio said, calling for greater intelligence sharing, coordinated law enforcement action and efforts to disrupt financial networks.
He further said the Trump administration had begun building a framework to counter what it describes as far-left terrorist networks.
“Under President Trump, for the first time, the United States is building the infrastructure, the partnership, and the strategy to defeat the scourge of far-left terror,” Rubio said.
The State Department said the policy would bar the entry of foreign nationals who “finance, recruit, incite, or otherwise enable” violent networks, describing it as part of efforts to protect US citizens, economic stability and domestic security.
