❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald Trump has directed the Department of Homeland Security to block male international athletes from competing in women’s sports in the United States.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Donald Trump, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The policy builds on an executive order signed on February 5, 2025, with USCIS issuing updated guidance on Monday.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Men do not belong in women’s sports,” said USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser.
🎯IMPACT: The policy aims to protect all-female athletic opportunities and ensure fair competition by restricting immigration benefits for male athletes seeking to compete in women’s sports.
President Donald Trump is instructing the Department of Homeland Security to implement policies blocking male international athletes from competing against women in the United States. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will issue updated guidance on Monday, building on Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order signed in February.
“Men do not belong in women’s sports,” USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser told The Daily Wire. “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.”
The updated guidance will revise visa categories such as “O-1A aliens of extraordinary ability” and “E11 aliens of extraordinary ability,” among others. Male athletes claiming to be transgender women and seeking to compete in women’s sports will face stricter scrutiny, with their past participation in women’s sports treated as a negative factor when determining their eligibility under these visa categories.
The USCIS also clarified that male athletes who have competed in men’s sports and now seek to compete in women’s sports will not be considered to be continuing work in their area of extraordinary ability. The agency stated that such participation does not “substantially benefit the United States” and is not in the national interest.
This move aligns with Trump’s executive order, which emphasized that allowing male athletes in women’s sports is “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls.” The policy comes ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in the United States, with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee adjusting its policies to comply with the executive order.
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