Report: Kari Lake attempting to deport VOA foreign journalists
After firing hundreds and decimating international broadcasters, Lake is now on a mission to force these former J-1 visa holders out of the country, according to a new report by The Atlantic. She claims they are as much of a threat as criminal illegal aliens and gang members.
Going onto conservative media outlets in recent weeks, Lake noted how those who lost their jobs at Voice of America (VOA) in recent months but remain in the U.S. with an expired work visa will be targeted by Trump's mass deportation efforts. 'Their time here is up,' Lake told Real America's Voice host Eric Bolling when speaking of anyone living in the U.S. without documentation.
'And I said before, if I have to go to the airport with them, and accompany them to the airport and get them on the flight, I will do that.' Lake warned: 'If you overstay your visa, ICE is going to find you. And they will find you in this case as well.' Even with the endorsement of Trump, Lake failed in her Arizona gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns in 2021 and 2024, respectively.
Trump tapped the former broadcast journalist to run the federal parent of VOA as he sought to shut it down. J-1 visas are a nonimmigrant visa for foreign individuals approved to work and study in the U.S. on exchange visitor programs. The visa holders are usually sponsored by educational or non-profit organizations. The Trump administration has included foreign workers on visas in its wider immigration crackdown. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to revoke Harvard's ability to host international students if they did not turn over a list of foreign student visa holders.
VOA was one of the government-funded agencies to face widespread cuts once Trump got back into office. As a condition of their J-1 visas, foreign workers for the broadcaster needed to remain employed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media or else depart the U.S. within 30 days. Dozens of J-1 visa holders who worked as translators and foreign-language broadcasters lost their jobs in the gutting of VOA this year, leaving their ability to stay in the U.S. up-in-the-air.
Since landing at the U.S. Agency for Global Media Lake moved to eliminate the agency's independent broadcasters that receive government funding, including Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Only a few dozen people work at VOA today, down from more than 1,300 before Trump retook office in January. It has downsized from broadcasting in 50 languages to just a handful.
While some VOA workers have already left the country, others are claiming asylum and a few quickly married or enrolled in school to avoid being deported to countries where they may no longer be welcome, The Atlantic reported. Some of these reporters, who now have the U.S. government as an employer on their resumés, could face persecution or even imprisonment if they are deported to their home nations.
Publicly, Lake described VOA as 'rotten to the core' and 'a serious threat to our national security.' VOA was founded in 1942 as a counterpoint to Nazi propaganda during World War II. Of Lake's recent comments about deporting her former employees, Steve Herman, a VOA retiree said: 'That sort of rhetoric—it's utter nonsense.'
'To perceive these people as a national-security threat is just ridiculous,' the former VOA White House bureau chief added. 'In fact, it can be argued that those responsible for dismantling the Voice of America have harmed America's national security by taking away one of our most powerful instruments of public diplomacy and soft power.' The significance of VOA's mission became clear during this summer's escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, when dozens of staffers were recalled to restore the Persian news division's critical broadcasts.
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