The Trump administration has already revoked at least 300 student visas amid its crackdown on pro-Hamas supporters, State Department Secretary Marco Rubio stated Thursday.
In a January executive order, President Donald Trump vowed that his administration would take steps to combat anti-Semitism, including revoking student visas and deporting Hamas sympathizers.
‘We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses.’
“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before,” Trump stated.
Earlier this month, the State Department confirmed that it had pulled the first student visa of an individual accused of being involved in a pro-Hamas campus protest.
Since then, Rubio reported that the department has revoked at least 300 foreign students’ visas.
During a Thursday press conference in Guyana, Rubio told reporters, “Maybe more. Might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas.”
“At some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them. But we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up,” he continued. “And by the way, we want to get rid of gang members too.”
Rubio confirmed that the State Department had revoked the visa of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national attending Tufts University.
A Reuters reporter asked Rubio to explain why Ozturk’s visa was canceled, noting that she had written an opinion piece about the “Gaza war.”
“We revoked it, and here’s why,” Rubio replied. “If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa.”
He called it “crazy” and “stupid” for any country to welcome individuals who seek to “start a riot” or “take over a library and harass people.”
“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses,” Rubio added.
A State Department official previously told Axios, “We found literally zero visa revocations during the Biden administration,” adding that it “suggests a blind eye attitude toward law enforcement.”
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