The Las Vegas Strip is seen looking southbound from Flamingo Road successful this March 24, 2023, photo. The adjacent president won’t instantly impact the way of gaming and tourism successful Las Vegas, said Andrew Woods, an economist and manager of the Center for Business and Economic Research astatine UNLV. Photo by: Steve Marcus
By Ray Brewer (contact)
Thursday, June 4, 2026 | 2 a.m.
Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
Nevada’s 2 U.S. senators are demanding that the Trump medication reverse a projected regularisation requiring planetary travelers to manus implicit 5 years of societal media past earlier visiting the United States, informing that the argumentation threatens to deepen an already alarming diminution successful tourism to Las Vegas — a metropolis whose system is built connected welcoming visitors from astir the world.
Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, some Democrats, joined 4 colleagues this week successful a missive to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin calling connected the medication to retreat the U.S. Customs and Border Protection rule.
The senators besides urged the State Department to extremity its abstracted signifier of screening societal media accounts of nonimmigrant visa applicants.
“These policies are further reducing already-declining tourism to the United States astatine a clip erstwhile our state should beryllium moving to invited much tourists up of large planetary events similar the World Cup,” the senators wrote.
The missive arrives astatine a fraught infinitesimal for Las Vegas.
Visitation to Las Vegas fell 7.5% successful 2025 to 38.5 cardinal people, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Experts person cited Trump’s tariffs and migration policies arsenic contributing factors to the decline.
From January done September, Las Vegas welcomed 2.5 cardinal less guests than during the aforesaid play the twelvemonth before, with country taxation receipts falling 14% — a level not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canadian airlines saw an 18% decline successful passengers coming to Las Vegas, a inclination worsened by Trump’s hostile rhetoric toward Canada.
The projected regularisation astatine the halfway of the senators’ missive would dramatically grow what overseas travelers indispensable disclose erstwhile applying done the Visa Waiver Program, which allows tourists and concern travelers from 42 allied countries to sojourn the U.S. for up to 90 days without a accepted visa.
Under the projected changes, applicants would beryllium required to besides supply telephone numbers, carnal addresses and email addresses utilized implicit the erstwhile 10 years. They indispensable besides supply elaborate idiosyncratic accusation astir their contiguous household members.
The medication says the expanded societal media screening enhances nationalist information by identifying imaginable threats and preventing fraud.
It views societal media past arsenic a important instrumentality for ideological vetting. The extremity is to surface retired individuals with ties to extremism, coercion oregon those who endorse “anti-American” oregon antisemitic views, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Immigration officials usage integer histories to cross-reference question applications against authorities databases, looking for discrepancies that mightiness awesome fraud oregon hidden migration violations.
The argumentation requires applicants to marque their profiles public. Immigration and civilian rights advocates person raised concerns that these continuous vetting and AI-assisted surveillance programs could chill escaped code and pb to misinterpretation, the Brennan Center said.
The senators pass that these requirements would marque the existing exertion process much burdensome portion besides slowing processing times — adding friction astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile the U.S. tin sick spend to propulsion visitors away. The World Travel & Tourism Council reported that the U.S. was the lone system among 184 countries expected to spot a diminution successful planetary visitant spending implicit the past year.
“Reduced planetary tourism is already harming hotels, restaurants, airlines and the galore different industries that trust connected tourism successful the United States,” the senators wrote.
The U.S. Travel Association estimates that question and tourism generated astir $1.3 trillion successful spending successful 2024, accounting for 2.5% of nationalist GDP.
Rosen and Cortez Masto — on with chap Democratic Sens. Peter Welch of Vermont, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff of California — pressed the medication connected however societal media past volition beryllium utilized to contradict applications.
They besides asked whether officials are accessing backstage messages oregon lone nationalist content, what the existent denial complaint is and however the medication plans to instrumentality these policies up of the World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics without burdening the overseas visitors those events are meant to attract.
“With this successful mind, we impulse the Department of Homeland Security to retreat its projected rule, inquire the Department of State to extremity its signifier of screening the societal media past of non-immigrant visa applicants,” the senators wrote.
English (US)·