State Department visa rule sets stage for ICE scrutiny of transgender immigrants

The U.S. Department of State has finalized a new immigration rule requiring visa applicants to identify their sex assigned at birth. Advocates warn that the change will expose transgender and nonbinary travelers to scrutiny, delays, visa denials, or deportation if their documents do not align with the Trump administration’s definition of sex.

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The regulation, published Wednesday in the Federal Register, updates federal immigration procedures to align with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last year directing agencies to recognize sex as a fixed biological classification and remove references to gender identity from federal policy.

Under the new rule, visa and immigration systems will record sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity and recognize only male or female classifications. The policy applies to visa processing and immigration records maintained by the State Department, including applications for programs such as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.

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The policy follows other immigration actions by the Trump administration targeting transgender travelers. In 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued guidance barring transgender women athletes from receiving certain “extraordinary ability” visas used by elite performers and competitors entering the United States, arguing that participation in women’s sports could count against applicants seeking those visas.

For transgender and nonbinary travelers, particularly those whose passports reflect gender markers that differ from their sex assigned at birth, the policy could create bureaucratic conflicts between identity documents and federal immigration records. Such discrepancies could carry heightened consequences amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement posture, where inconsistencies in official documents can trigger additional vetting or allegations of misrepresentation during visa adjudication.

State Department guidance allows consular officers to request proof of sex at birth and potentially deny visas if they suspect a mismatch between gender identity and sex assigned at birth.

Immigration attorneys warn that information recorded during visa adjudication can be transferred to federal enforcement databases used by immigration authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Discrepancies between identity documents and government records can later surface during border inspections, asylum screenings, or removal proceedings.

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President Donald Trump has pursued an aggressive immigration crackdown that has already placed LGBTQ+ migrants at risk of deportation to hostile countries. In recent cases reported by The Advocate, attorneys warned that gay and transgender asylum seekers have faced removal or threatened deportation to places such as Uganda and Iran, where homosexuality is criminalized and punishable by imprisonment or even death.

Immigration attorney Bekah Wolf of the American Immigration Council told The Advocate that some of these cases are “textbook asylum cases,” involving people fleeing countries where “who they are is criminalized and punishable by torture or death.”

Several countries now issue passports with nonbinary “X” gender markers or allow people to legally change their gender on identity documents. The U.S. rule forces officials to override those markers or treat discrepancies between documents as potential misrepresentation, triggering additional scrutiny during visa processing.

The immigration rule is part of a broader effort across federal agencies to implement the executive order titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which directs agencies to define sex as an immutable classification and revise policies that recognize gender identity.

“The Trump administration’s new rule allowing DHS and ICE to scrutinize and potentially deny visas and immigration benefits to people based on perceived ‘gender identity fraud’ is the administration’s latest political attack on America’s transgender community,” Sean Ebony Coleman, founder and CEO of Destination Tomorrow, a national LGBTQ+ nonprofit, said in a statement to The Advocate.

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“While framed as an immigration measure, this rule builds on the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict recognition of gender identity and limit access to personal government documents,” Coleman said. “Policies like this create harm and open the door to profiling, harassment, and discrimination against transgender people, including U.S. citizens.”

Destination Tomorrow is a Bronx-founded organization that provides housing, workforce development, health services, and other support programs for LGBTQ+ people, particularly transgender and gender-nonconforming communities.

“Transgender people deserve to live openly and safely without government actions that turn identity into a reason for suspicion, exclusion, or unequal treatment under the law,” Coleman said.