The United States has announced new visa restrictions targeting individuals implicated in violations of religious freedom, including those who directed, supported, authorised or participated in such abuses.
In a statement released Wednesday titled “Combating Egregious Anti-Christian Violence in Nigeria and Globally,” the U.S. Department of State said the decision responds to increasing attacks on Christians by extremist groups, including radical Islamist terrorists, Fulani militias, and other violent actors in Nigeria and other countries.
According to the statement, the new policy—invoked under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act—empowers the State Department to deny visas to offenders and, when justified, their immediate family members.
The State Department quoted former President Donald Trump, saying the United States “cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries.” The policy is expected to apply to Nigeria and any other country where religious freedom violations are taking place.
The announcement came a day after U.S. House Republicans held a high-level briefing on rising religious violence in Nigeria. The session followed Trump’s October 31 directive instructing the House Appropriations Committee to investigate what he described as the systematic killing of Christians in Nigeria.
The briefing—chaired by Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart—featured members of the House Appropriations and House Foreign Affairs Committees, as well as officials from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and other advocacy groups. Contributors included Reps. Robert Aderholt, Riley Moore, Brian Mast, Chris Smith, USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler, ADF International’s Sean Nelson, and Dr. Ebenezer Obadare of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The new visa-ban policy also coincides with renewed diplomatic engagement between both countries. President Bola Tinubu recently approved Nigeria’s delegation to the U.S.–Nigeria Joint Working Group, established to implement security agreements reached during high-level meetings in Washington led by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.
Amid rising concerns over terrorism, banditry, and targeted attacks on Christian communities, the U.S. has intensified monitoring of Nigeria’s religious-freedom climate. Last month, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa held a public hearing to review Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern,” a designation that could open the door to sanctions against complicit Nigerian officials.
Lawmakers at the hearing examined what penalties might apply if Nigerian authorities are found responsible for enabling or ignoring religious persecution.
Who do you think could be affected by the visa ban, and how might this development influence U.S.–Nigeria relations going forward?
