US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday that the State Department has canceled the visas of over 300 people as part of an all-out assault on anti-Israel activism on American college campuses.
“Perhaps over 300 at this point. We do it daily,” Rubio said to reporters while visiting Guyana. “Each time I find one of these crazies, I remove their visas.
Since President Donald Trump’s re-election to office in January, the administration has gone on the attack against students organizing anti-Israel protests in response to the latest fighting in Gaza.
Among the most high-profile of these is Mahmoud Khalil, a past leader of protests at Columbia University, who was arrested and shipped to Louisiana to begin deportation proceedings, even though he holds permanent US residency.
The crackdown is continuing with this month’s arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student in Tufts University’s doctor of philosophy program, who was held by immigration agents after having posted an opinion article demanding acknowledgment of Palestinian “genocide.
Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley denounced the administration’s move as a constitutional rights violation. “This is a chilling abuse of Rumeysa’s constitutional right to due process and free speech. She should be released at once,” she said.
The Trump administration has justified its actions, claiming First Amendment protections don’t apply to non-citizens. Rubio made it clear that protesters causing disruptions, vandalism, and harassment on campuses would not be permitted to stay in America.
“If you lie to get a visa to come here and then you do something like that, we’re going to revoke your visa,” he said.
