FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
New York, Sept. 15, 2026 — Late yesterday, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to impose significant visa restrictions on foreign journalists and students.
Under long-standing rules, journalists have been able to visit the United States on “I visas” and report without regular interference or scrutiny of their content. The Trump administration moved to instead require visa renewal every 240 days, a significant administrative burden and waste of taxpayer dollars that would have subjected journalists to a constitutionally chilling process that could include content review. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
As the judge observed in his ruling, “DHS did not identify a single specific national security risk associated with foreign journalists on I-visas.”
The following statement can be attributed to Adam Rose, deputy director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF):
“As a nation of immigrants, this ruling is a victory for the United States. While several different groups would have been impacted, the administration’s targeting of journalist visas is fundamentally un-American and a betrayal of the First Amendment. Subjecting press to renewals every few months would result in content-based denials and chill the ability to report freely. Even if you support the current administration, you should hate this proposal because it could just as easily be abused by a future administration against the viewpoints and news you like.”
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