# Ladder: expulsion and visa denial, in North America

A government expels correspondents who report from its territory for news organisations based in other countries, refuses them visas or accreditation, or declines to renew their permission to stay. The effect is less independent reporting from inside the country.

The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

Narrow with ?stage= (restrict, pressure, punish, silence, eliminate), ?continent=, ?from= and ?to= (year or date).

## Punish

Legal or physical action against individual journalists or sources: subpoenas and record seizures, prosecutions, arrests, detention, expulsions, visa denials, assault where a government actor is involved.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1917 | Focal case: [United States](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/us) ([RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Woodrow Wilson](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/woodrow-wilson) | Emma Goldman, editor of the anarchist magazine Mother Earth, was convicted with fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman of conspiring against the newly enacted Selective Draft Law and received the maximum two year sentence and a ten thousand dollar fine. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1917-us-mother-earth-editor-emma-goldman-convicted-magazine-barred-from-mail) | Upheld by a court (14 January 1918) | 2 |
| September 2018 | [Nicaragua](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/ni) ([RSF 2026 rank: 168th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Daniel Ortega](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/daniel-ortega) | A coordinated online campaign accused freelance correspondent Carl David Goette-Luciak of being a foreign agent and circulated his home address, after which he was detained and deported from Nicaragua in September 2018. Note: A freelance correspondent's home address was circulated online in a coordinated campaign, then he was detained and deported from Nicaragua; no comparable United States action in the record has removed a journalist from the country. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-nicaragua-expels-goette-luciak) | Sustained (30 September 2018) | 3 |

## Eliminate

Long imprisonment, killing, disappearance or forced exile of journalists, with state involvement as the sources state it.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1980 | [Haiti](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/ht) ([RSF 2026 rank: 107th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Jean-Claude Duvalier](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/jean-claude-duvalier) | Under President Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haitian authorities arrested and deported staff of Radio Haiti-Inter, an independent station that had reported critically on the government, forcing its director, journalist Jean Dominique, into exile after security forces raided the station on November 28, 198… [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1981-haiti-duvalier-radio-haiti-inter-exile) | Reversed (1 February 1986) | 3 |
| 15 February 2023 | [Nicaragua](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/ni) ([RSF 2026 rank: 168th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Daniel Ortega](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/daniel-ortega) | A Nicaraguan appeals court stripped 94 government opponents, including exiled journalists Carlos Fernando Chamorro and Alvaro Navarro, of their citizenship, days after President Daniel Ortega released 222 political prisoners to the United States and immediately declared them stateless too. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2023-nicaragua-strips-journalists-citizenship) | Sustained | 2 |

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All ladders: https://thewaronnews.com/ladders. United States chapter: https://thewaronnews.com/united-states

Source page: https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/expulsion_and_visa_denial?continent=north-america. The War On News, CC BY 4.0.