A New Policy Switch Hits Trans Women Athletes Where It Hurts — Their Visas

The U.S. government just slammed the door on transgender women athletes hoping to compete in America. On Aug. 4, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) quietly updated its policy manual. According to Reuters, the agency will now treat a transgender woman’s prior competition against women as a negative factor when reviewing visas and green card petitions for athletes.

The move follows a series of attacks from the Trump administration aimed at transgender people. The administration has turned a cultural fight into a policy that impacts visas, passports, and the very ability of people to cross borders for sport. Here is a look at how the ban will affect trans athletes. 

Trans women may be unable to compete in U.S. sports. 

Reuters reports that the change affects O-1A (“extraordinary ability”) visas, EB-1 and EB-2 employment-based green cards, and national interest waivers. It effectively makes it much harder for trans women who have built careers overseas to get the paperwork they need to race, lift, or play in the United States.

Officials who pushed the move spoke loudly in its defense. USCIS spokespeople called the update a fairness and safety measure. They suggest it closes a perceived loophole that would let “male athletes” change their gender marker and compete in women’s sports in the U.S.

“USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women,” USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser told Reuters. “It’s a matter of safety, fairness, respect, and truth that only female athletes receive a visa to come to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports.”

That line mirrors an executive-level push that began months earlier, when the president signed an order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” directing federal agencies to crack down on transgender participation in female athletic categories. According to ABC News, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and several national governing bodies have also adjusted policies to align with the administration’s directive. The organization put international athletes on notice as the U.S. gears up to host the 2028 Olympics.

Advocates are fighting back against the ban. 

Advocates say the visa change weaponizes immigration law in unprecedented ways. Rather than judge athletes on talent and achievement, consular officers are instructed to check whether an applicant’s sports history or gender documentation fits the administration’s definition of sex.

“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,” Sarah Mehta, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, told The Guardian. “To single out and label transgender individuals this way as a disfavored group is really alarming.”

The ACLU and Lambda Legal say they will file suits and seek emergency relief. They will argue that the federal government cannot use immigration law to single out and exclude a protected group.

Does this policy protect women’s sports — or does it discriminate against transgender people? Comment below!