Visa Restrictions on Executive of a Charter Flight Company Facilitating Irregular Migration to the U.S.

The United States is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on an executive of a charter flight transportation company for facilitating irregular migration to the United States via Nicaragua from outside the Western Hemisphere. Companies are preying on vulnerable migrants by operating services designed primarily to facilitate irregular migration to the United States. At the same time, the Ortega-Murillo regime in Nicaragua continues to financially benefit from the exploitation of vulnerable migrants.

U.S. visa restrictions promote accountability for these actors. No one should profit from vulnerable migrants—not smugglers, private companies, or public officials.  We will continue to take steps to impose visa restrictions against unscrupulous transportation company owners, executives, and senior officials as part of our broader campaign to eliminate such exploitative practices within and beyond the Western Hemisphere, in collaboration with partners in government and in the private sector.

These actions were taken pursuant to a State Department policy announced in February 2024, which expanded and superseded a prior policy announced in November 2023, under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Section 212(a)(3)(C). The policy targets senior officials of companies providing transportation by land, sea, or charter air designed for use primarily by persons intending to migrate irregularly to the United States.