The days of America being the world’s doormat are officially over. President Donald J. Trump has just implemented another brilliant, common-sense, America First policy: a new $250 “visa integrity fee” for foreign visitors.
This is not a tourism tax. As its name makes perfectly clear, this is about ensuring the integrity of our visa system and making sure that the cost of vetting and processing foreign visitors is paid for by those visitors themselves, not by you, the American taxpayer.
The globalist travel industry is already whining, but for the American people, this is a huge and long-overdue win.
The End of the Free Ride
For decades, the United States has been the number one travel destination in the world, yet our government has failed to make our visitors pay their fair share for the security and processing that keeps our country safe.
That ends on October 1st.
This new fee will primarily affect visitors from non-visa waiver countries like Mexico, China, and Brazil. It is a simple and fair price to pay for the privilege of visiting the greatest nation on Earth.
The Globalists Whine, Trump Wins
Predictably, the corporate travel executives are having a meltdown. They are crying that adding “friction” to the travel experience will “cut travel volumes.”
This is the same pathetic, fear-mongering nonsense they used to attack President Trump’s successful tariffs. They are wrong.
People don’t come to America because it’s cheap. They come because it’s America. The honor of visiting our beautiful country is worth infinitely more than a $250 fee, and any serious, law-abiding visitor will gladly pay it to ensure the system that protects us all has integrity.
A Common-Sense Global Standard
The fake news media will try to paint this as a radical move, but President Trump is simply being a global leader and a trendsetter.
Even other countries are waking up and following his lead. The British government recently rolled out its own new travel fee in an effort to “prevent abuse” of their system.
While they are just catching up, President Trump is once again ahead of the curve, implementing the smart, sovereign policies that put his country and his people first.
America First is the Only Way
This new fee is another piece of President Trump’s brilliant, coherent strategy to end the abuse of our immigration system. It goes hand-in-hand with his new rules to limit visa lengths for foreign students and media.
It all comes down to a simple principle that the globalists will never understand: our country is a prize, not a public park for the rest of the world to use for free. This is another promise kept to put the interests of the American taxpayer first.