On August 16, 2025, the U.S. State Department abruptly announced it would halt all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza, including those seeking temporary medical-humanitarian visas for children. This decision, which came as the Israel-Hamas war continues to devastate the region, has ignited a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers, advocacy groups, and members of the public alike. At the center of the controversy is Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of both the Trump administration and the State Department’s recent actions.
“We need to be the America that allows war-torn children to come here for life-saving surgeries and the America that never releases a foreign child sex predator that our great law enforcement officials caught,” Greene posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 19. Her remarks referenced two separate but intertwined events: the visa halt for Gaza children and the arrest—and subsequent release—of Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, an official in Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, in connection with a Las Vegas child sex trafficking sting.
Greene’s criticism did not stop there. She questioned whether the U.S. government was applying a double standard in its foreign policy, particularly when it came to Israeli officials. “Would it be antisemitic to drag [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s Cyber Executive Director back and prosecute this pos to the full extent of the law and at the same time let Palestinian kids who had their limbs and bodies blown apart receive surgeries in America?” she wrote, according to Newsweek. Greene further challenged the notion that humanitarian aid should be denied to children based on their nationality or the politics of their homeland, asking, “Wouldn’t we allow Israeli children if they were the ones needing surgery? Or war-torn children from any other country?”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, defending the administration’s move on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” argued that the visa halt was not just about children. “It’s a bunch of adults that are accompanying them,” Rubio said, adding, “We had outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it, and so we’re going to reevaluate how those visas are being granted—not just to the children, but how those visas are being granted to the people who are accompanying them and, by the way, to some of the organizations that are facilitating it.” Rubio also suggested that some visitors might have ties to Hamas, stating, “We are not going to be in partnership with groups that are friendly with Hamas. So we need to—we’re going to pause those visas,” pending further review.
The State Department’s official statement on X read: “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.” This move followed a broader crackdown on visa vetting initiated by the Trump administration in June 2025, which included more comprehensive reviews of applicants’ online presence. “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision,” the State Department emphasized, highlighting the need to ensure that visa applicants do not pose a threat to Americans or U.S. national interests.
The decision to halt visas came in the wake of a social media campaign led by far-right activist Laura Loomer, who accused HEAL Palestine, a U.S.-based charity, of “mass importing GAZANS into the US” under the guise of humanitarian aid. Loomer’s campaign, which included direct communication with Secretary of State Rubio, alleged that Palestinians from Gaza were entering the U.S. as refugees—a claim the charity vehemently denied. “There was no refugee program,” HEAL Palestine clarified, explaining that their efforts were focused solely on providing medical treatment for critically injured children, not resettlement.
Amid the uproar, the State Department also found itself fielding questions about the release of Tom Artiom Alexandrovich. Arrested in Las Vegas on August 7, 2025, on suspicion of soliciting abuse of minors, Alexandrovich was released on a $10,000 bond and returned to Israel. The State Department denied any involvement in his release, stating, “He did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge pending a court date. Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false.” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office, for its part, downplayed the incident, saying Alexandrovich was only “questioned” and had “returned to Israel as scheduled.”
Greene seized on the case to highlight what she saw as a troubling inconsistency in U.S. policy. “Would we do that with a Mexican child sex predator? Chinese child sex predator? Any other country’s child sex predator?” she asked, arguing that the U.S. had become “subservient to Israel” by allowing Alexandrovich to leave the country. According to The Hill, Greene’s comments reflected a broader frustration among some lawmakers about perceived favoritism in cases involving Israeli officials.
The halt to medical-humanitarian visas has had immediate and profound consequences for children in Gaza. According to Reuters, the population in Gaza had already dropped by 6% as of January 1, 2025, since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, with approximately 100,000 Palestinians fleeing the enclave. The war has resulted in more than 60,000 Palestinian deaths, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, and has left countless children in urgent need of medical care.
France, too, has faced its own controversy over evacuations from Gaza. Earlier in August, French authorities suspended all evacuations after a Palestinian student allegedly shared a social media post calling for violence against Jews. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot insisted that “no evacuation of any kind will take place until we have drawn the necessary conclusions from this investigation.” The student involved, Nour Attaalah, ultimately left France for Qatar.
As the debate rages on, the fate of Gaza’s most vulnerable children hangs in the balance. Greene, for her part, insists that her advocacy is not about bringing in refugees or using taxpayer dollars. “I’m not saying bring in refugees or use tax payer dollars, not at all, but when did America’s heart grow so cold to refuse innocent children privately funded surgeries and then they return home after they recover?” she wrote. “I know God does not discriminate in his love for children. Why would we?”
With the State Department’s review ongoing and no clear timeline for resuming visa processing, families in Gaza—and their advocates in the U.S.—remain in limbo. The controversy has exposed deep divisions over how America balances national security, humanitarian obligations, and its relationships with key allies. For now, the question of whether Gaza’s wounded children will be able to access life-saving care in the United States remains heartbreakingly unresolved.
