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Opinion:
By Wendy M. Yurgo
For years, the United States condemned religious persecution abroad and then moved on. Statements were issued. Reports were filed. Nothing changed.
That pattern just broke.
In December 2025, the U.S. State Department announced visa restrictions targeting individuals involved in egregious violations of religious freedom, beginning with those tied to anti-Christian violence in Nigeria. The message was simple and long overdue: participation in religious persecution now carries personal consequences.
This is not symbolic. It is leverage.
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Why this matters
Visa access to the United States is currency. For political elites, militia leaders, financiers, and their families, the ability to travel, bank, study, and move freely through Western systems is not a luxury it is status, legitimacy, and power. And it’s now revoked.
For years, persecutors understood something the international community refused to admit: condemnations don’t cost anything. Consequences do.
By moving from rhetoric to enforcement, the United States has finally made religious persecution expensive.
From concern to enforcement
The visa restriction policy, announced and enforced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, allows the United States to deny entry to foreign nationals who direct, enable, or participate in violations of religious freedom. It applies to both state and non-state actors, a critical distinction in regions where violence is often outsourced to militias or “unofficial” groups.
This policy did not emerge in a vacuum. In November 2025, the United States formally designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious-freedom violations, a move that drew immediate backlash from Nigerian officials but underscored the severity of the crisis. In early February 2026, U.S. officials also reported additional security cooperation with Nigerian authorities following continued extremist violence.
These steps form a coherent posture: identify the problem, name it, and attach consequences.
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Why enforcement matters
This isn’t about personality or praise. It’s about execution.
Policy only matters when someone is willing to enforce it and enforcement is rarely comfortable. Visa bans invite diplomatic friction. They provoke accusations of interference. They make polite conversations awkward.
That’s the point.
The State Department didn’t just restate American values. It used one of the few tools that reliably alters behavior. No press release ever changed a persecutor’s calculus. Denied access does.
The quiet failure of the past
For too long, the international response to religious persecution followed a predictable script: outrage, reports, silence. Persecutors learned that even mass violence rarely triggered penalties that affected them personally.
The result was not deterrence, but normalization.
This policy breaks from that failure. It recognizes a hard truth: enforcement is the only language abusers consistently understand.
The cost of seriousness
There will be pushback. There always is when consequences replace comfort. Governments accused of tolerating persecution will protest. Critics will argue that visa bans are insufficient or politically motivated.
But seriousness is never free.
You don’t end religious persecution with statements. You end it by making it costly to continue.
For the first time in years, the United States has drawn a clear line. Not with words but with enforcement.
About the Author
Wendy M. Yurgo is the Founder and CEO of Revere Payments, a Christian conservative fintech company serving many of the nation’s leading faith-based and freedom-driven organizations. She is a writer and speaker passionate about faith, freedom, and strengthening families. Her work is rooted in light, guided by principle, and grounded in truth.
Follow Wendy on Instagram @wendyyurgo and X @paymentsSHEEO.

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