Rubio Announces Visa Restrictions on Anyone Carrying Out ‘Violations of Religious Freedom’ 

The State Department has announced new restrictions on visas for anyone who is seen to be supporting or conducting violations of religious freedom. 

“The United States is taking decisive action in response to the atrocities and violence against Christians in Nigeria and around the world,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday.  

The department “will restrict U.S. visas for those who knowingly direct, authorize, fund, support, or carry out violations of religious freedom,” Rubio said in a statement. The policy will also in some cases restrict visas of family members who are known to have carried out violations of religious freedom.  

The policy applies is in response to “to the mass killings and violence against Christians by radical Islamic terrorists, Fulani ethnic militias, and other violent actors in Nigeria and beyond,” according to the State Department. While Nigeria is the only nation the new policy specifically names, it will also apply to “other governments or individuals engaged in violations of religious freedom.”  

President Donald Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” in October in response to persecution of Christians in the African nation. Trump has also tasked Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. V., Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and the House Appropriations Committee to look further into the issue of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria and report their findings.  

Moore and a group of lawmakers held a roundtable in the District of Columbia on Tuesday aimed at discussing the further investigation of the persecution of Christinas in Nigeria.  

The U.S. “cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries,” Trump said.  

It is estimated that more than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, and about 7,000 in the first half 2025 alone, most at the hands of either Boko Haram or Muslim Fulani militants.   

The persecution of Christians in Nigeria has not only gained the attention of lawmakers in Washington, but also celebrity rapper and songwriter Nicki Minaj.  

Minaj has been vocal in her support of Trump’s actions to address the situation in Nigeria and has called for action “to defend Christians in Nigeria, to combat extremism and to bring a stop to violence against those who simply want to exercise their natural right to freedom of religion or belief.” 

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