WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump is directing the Department of Homeland Security to develop policies to block male international athletes from competing against women in the United States, The Daily Wire can exclusively report.
On Monday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will issue guidance building off Trump’s Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order, ensuring that certain athlete-related petitions and applications will be available only to women.
“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.”
“It’s a matter of safety, fairness, respect, and truth that only biological female athletes receive a visa to come to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports,” he added. “The Trump administration is standing up for the silent majority who have long been victims of leftist policies that defy common sense.”
The agency’s update will clarify and revise guidance related to the visa categories “O-1A aliens of extraordinary ability,” “E11 aliens of extraordinary ability,” “E21 aliens of exceptional ability,” and “national interest waivers (NIWs).”
When considering these categories, if USCIS is considering a male athlete who says he is a transgender woman and thus wants to compete in women’s sports in the United States, USCIS will view the fact that this man has competed against women in the past as a negative factor when determining if he is among “the small percentage at the very top of the field.”
Riley Gaines watches as President Donald Trump delivers remarks before signing the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order in the East Room at the White House on February 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Similarly, when looking at a male athlete who has “gained acclaim in men’s sports and seeks to compete in women’s sports” in the United States, USCIS will not consider him to be trying to “continue work in his area of extraordinary ability.”
The agency also says that male athletes who want to enter the country in order to compete in women’s sports “do not substantially benefit the United States” and that it is not in the national interest of the United States to “waive the job offer and, thus, the labor certification requirement for male athletes whose proposed endeavor is to compete in women’s sports.”
The move, which is part of USCIS’s efforts to protect all-female athletic opportunities, will ensure that “male aliens” who want immigration benefits aren’t coming to the United States to participate in women’s sports by pretending to be women.
A USCIS spokesman told The Daily Wire that the president’s February executive order was the catalyst for the agency’s decision. That order directed that all funds be rescinded from “educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,” saying that allowing men in women’s sports is “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,” Trump’s executive order stated.
The move is also interesting since the next Summer Olympic Games will be held in the United States in 2028 ( the 2026 Winter Olympics, will be hosted by Italy). The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee quietly changed its policy in July to comply with the president’s executive order and ban men from competing against women, a major win for conservatives and the White House.