While much of the nation’s focus has been drawn away from the Trump administration due to the recent Supreme Court decision on tariffs and the White House’s reactions, the immigration issue remains a critical topic. In a recent development, the State Department, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is taking action against illegal Uzbek visa brokers. And yes, this is exactly what we voted for.
The Trump administration’s State Department is imposing a series of visa restrictions on “executives at Uzbekistan-based companies who knowingly facilitated illegal immigration to the United States by coordinating transportation for illegal immigrants, including minors, through Central America,” the Washington Reporter can exclusively confirm.
“The Government of Uzbekistan’s close cooperation in shutting down these criminal networks is vital to our shared commitment to combating human smuggling and protecting our national security,” a State Department official told the Reporter.
The move, a foreign policy expert told the Reporter, is part of the Trump administration’s moves to “Make Visa Restrictions Great Again,” and it specifically targets senior executives at two Uzbekistan-based visa facilitation companies who the State Department found to have “knowingly provided travel services designed primarily for aliens intending to illegally immigrate to the United States.”
Including minors in this issue—alongside routes through Central America—Uzbekistan is likely not the only origin point for such schemes, including human trafficking, and potentially even worse. Some of these countries are almost certainly attempting to smuggle dangerous individuals into the United States. At least for now, this source has been hindered:
These measures taken came following State Department investigations that found that Uzbekistani businesses and individuals “actively coordinated transportation for aliens, including minors, intending to illegally immigrate to the United States through airports and across borders to transit points in Central America, where many were later encountered attempting to enter the United States illegally.”
There’s a bit of a Whack-a-Mole aspect to all this, but at least we’ve managed to take one mole down for now. Politics is all about navigating the possible, and in situations like this, the State Department has a good deal of flexibility. With Marco Rubio at the helm, we have one of the best Secretaries of State the U.S. has seen in decades; he clearly outshines a certain former first lady and carpetbagger senator from New York I could mention.
Uzbekistan is noteworthy not only because it’s predominantly Muslim—although it doesn’t frequently feature in terror plots like Iran—but also because it was once a Soviet “republic.” While the country has a complicated past, that doesn’t justify allowing human trafficking operations in Uzbekistan to persist.
Now, at least, we’ve managed to close that door. The State Department can shift its focus to rooting out similar operations and shutting them down. And no, I’ll never get tired ofR winning.