January 16, 2026
NATIONWIDE (January 16, 2026) — Stop AAPI Hate issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s decision to stop processing immigrant visas for people from 75 countries starting January 21, as it attempts to expand its “public charge” policy. This freeze targets 14 Asian and Pacific Islander nations: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, and Uzbekistan. These countries of origin account for over 40% of Asian and Pacific Islander immigrant visas issued recently.
The quote below can be attributed to Cynthia Choi, Co-Founder of Stop AAPI Hate and Co-Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action:
“Stop AAPI Hate strongly opposes the Trump administration’s decision to indefinitely freeze immigrant visa processing for 75 countries, including 14 Asian and Pacific Islander nations. This is an attack on working class people of color – an attempt to shut them out and remake America into a country where only the white and wealthy are deemed worthy.
This new visa freeze is both racist and classist, standing in direct contradiction to America’s values symbolized by the Statue of Liberty’s call to welcome the poor and the striving. Roughly 90% of the targeted countries are non-European nations with populations that are majority people of color. And the freeze is driven by an aggressive expansion of ‘public charge’ rules that penalize low-income families and working-class immigrants.
Federal law already requires immigrant visa applicants to demonstrate they will not rely on public assistance. Yet the administration is implementing this freeze to take things much further by encouraging heightened scrutiny based on age, health, disability, family status, finances, education, and past use of benefits. These vague standards invite arbitrary bias and exclusion, particularly against disabled people, elders, people of color, and low-income families.
Especially alarming is the new requirement that consular officers assess English proficiency through English-language interviews for Asian communities, reviving a long and shameful history of discrimination based on how we speak and how we look.
It’s clear that this visa freeze is all part of a broader campaign to block people of color from immigrating to the U.S. — people seeking nothing more than safety, stability and opportunity. It builds on Trump’s racist travel ban, the suspension of asylum processing, and the halting of citizenship and green card applications for people from dozens of non-European nations. We reject this vision of America and call on lawmakers to vocally oppose this measure while fighting for an immigration system rooted in dignity, equality, and opportunity for all.”
