US threatens permanent visa bans on trans athletes based on sex markers

The US state department has ordered officials worldwide to deny visas to transgender athletes attempting to come to the US for sports competitions and to issue permanent visa bans against those who are deemed to misrepresent their birth sex on visa applications.

The 24 February state department cable obtained by the Guardian instructs visa officers to apply Immigration and Nationality Act section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) – the “permanent fraud bar” – against trans applicants. Unlike regular visa denials, this section triggers lifetime exclusion from the United States with limited waiver possibilities.

“In cases where applicants are suspected of misrepresenting their purpose of travel or sex, you should consider whether this misrepresentation is material such that it supports an ineligibility finding,” reads the directive from the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio.

The instructions come after Donald Trump issued an executive order on 5 February barring trans athletes from competing in women’s sports. While signing the order, the president directed the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to deny visas to “men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes” during the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles – which will take place under Trump’s watch.

At the signing, Trump also directed Rubio to tell the International Olympic Committee that America “will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes”.

Sarah Mehta, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said the administration’s use of the permanent fraud provision represents an unprecedented expansion of immigration law against a specific identity group.

“It’s normal to say that people accused of fraud or misrepresentation are often considered to be ineligible. It’s usually a case-by-case determination,” Mehta said. “But it is quite bizarre and novel in a terrible way to be saying it’s based on their misrepresenting their sex or gender in order to come and participate in an event in the United States.”

She added the “inadmissibility” provision has been used to bar groups like criminals in the past, “but to single out and label transgender individuals this way as a disfavored group is really alarming”.

It is unclear how many international trans athletes will attempt to compete in the 2028 Olympics, but the New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was the first in history at the Tokyo Games in 2020. In 2024, the American runner Nikki Hiltz competed at the Olympics in Paris.

The directive would also apply to other women’s sports leagues such as the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), which allow trans athletes to compete, or future women’s World Cup competitions hosted in the US.

The state department cable instructs consular officers to examine birth certificates when documentation conflicts and mark all cases with “SWS25” to track enforcement across consular posts worldwide. It also mentions a forthcoming separate guidance from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that will outline additional actions to “preclude biologically male athletes from participating in women’s sporting events, including sports exchanges in the United States”.

The directive comes weeks after the NCAA announced it would be restricting women’s sports to athletes who are assigned female at birth.

The state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.