Far-right activist Laura Loomer is taking a victory lap for a new State Department policy decision: halting all visitor visas from Gaza.
The State Department announced Saturday it was stopping the visas for people from Gaza, one day after Loomer posted a series of videos capturing alleged flights bringing people from the territory to the United States. She questioned why they were allowed into the country, and demanded that whoever approved their visas be fired.
“All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,” the State Department said in a statement Saturday.
In a social media post, the conservative firebrand celebrated the department’s decision as “fantastic news,” noting that it was made “following the release of my reports yesterday exposing flights of GAZANS arriving at airports all across the US.”
She added: “Hopefully all GAZANS will be added to President Trump’s travel ban. There are doctors in other countries. The US is not the world’s hospital!”
The Independent has asked the State Department whether Loomer had any influence on the decision.
Throughout the day Friday, Loomer posted videos allegedly showing people from Gaza arriving at airports across the U.S., including Seattle, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Houston, in the past few weeks. The videos were originally posted by HEAL Palestine, a nonprofit dedicated to delivering urgent and long-term support to Palestinian children and families.
The videos, posted by HEAL Palestine’s Instagram account, show children coming to the U.S. for medical treatment. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war in Gaza since Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry last month.
Visitor visas are nonimmigrant visas for persons who want to enter the U.S. temporarily. The B-1 visa covers business, and the B-2 visa is for tourism which includes medical treatment, according to the State Department.
In one heart-wrenching example, a 14-year-old girl, who arrived in San Francisco this month, was injured when a school that her displaced family was using as shelter was bombed. “She sustained second-and third-degree burns across her body and face, shrapnel wounds to her head and leg, and is still living with embedded fragments,” the nonprofit wrote in an August 6 post. The child also suffers from malnutrition, weighing just 20 kilograms, or 44 pounds.
The Independent has asked the nonprofit for comment on Loomer’s posts.
“Who from the State Department is assisting ‘Heal Palestine’?” Loomer wrote in a Friday social media post. “Why are any Islamic invaders coming into the U.S. under the Trump admin?”
She continued: “This is a national security threat. We didn’t vote for more Islamic immigration into the United States. Who signed off on these visas? They should be fired.”
Loomer’s posts picked up some traction, including from GOP members of Congress.
Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy remarked Friday: “Deeply concerned about the incoming flights – including to Texas – allegedly filled with folks from Gaza as reported by @LauraLoomer. Inquiring.”
Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine similarly said he was “troubled” by Loomer’s report. “If true, this is absolutely unacceptable. My office will be working with the relevant authorities to confirm the truth, understand how it happened, and seek immediate expulsion,” he wrote on X Friday.
After the State Department’s announcement Saturday, Fine gave Loomer a pat on the back. “Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware. Well done, Laura,” he wrote on X.
The far-right activist seems to have some sway within the Trump administration as a pattern seems to have emerged. Not long after Loomer makes an online complaint, a change seems to happen within the administration.
Last month, Loomer boasted after Maurene Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and sex offender, Ghislaine Maxwell, and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, was fired from the Justice Department.
After she was terminated, Loomer took a victory lap, writing on X: “This comes 2 months after my pressure campaign on Pam Blondi [sic] to fire Comey’s daughter and Comey’s son-in-law from the DOJ.”
In May, Loomer urged President Donald Trump to pick a new nominee for surgeon general after she called his pick, Janette Nesheiwat, “not ideologically aligned with Donald Trump or his admin’s health initiatives.” The president later withdrew Nesheiwat’s nomination.
In April, Loomer met with Trump, urging him to fire members of the National Security Council who had been disloyal to him. Not long after, the president terminated several NSC staff.
It’s not clear how much Loomer’s demands played a role in the decisions. Asked how many staffing decisions she’s had a hand in, Loomer told the New York Times last month: “I don’t even know…I really enjoy and take great pleasure in humiliating people who suck at their job.”
