Monday 31 / March / 2025
Washington DC: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration has revoked the visas of "maybe more than 300" people allegedly tied to pro-Palestinian university protests.
"We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas," Rubio said during an official visit to Guyana on Thursday.
"At some point, I hope we've run out because we've gotten rid of them."
The spree of arrests and attempted deportations come as the Trump administration seeks to punish those who disagree with United States policies, particularly regarding Israel.
"We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist, to tear up our university campuses," Rubio said.
"If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa, participate in that sort of activity, we're going to take away your visa."
The US government claims the First Amendment — the founding principle of the constitution which guarantees freedom of speech — does not apply to non-US citizens in deportation cases. The argument has been highly disputed by experts.
Legal rights under attack
Rubio's comments were a response to a question about the latest high-profile university arrest, this time in Massachusetts.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, was detained outside her home by immigration officers on Tuesday.
She had written an article in the campus newspaper calling on the university to recognize Israel's war in Gaza as a genocide.
As with other detained foreign students, Ozturk has not been formally accused of a crime.
But a senior spokesperson at the Department of Homeland security said she "engaged in activities in support of Hamas that relishes the killing of Americans." The Department has not provided evidence.
"This is a horrifying violation of Rumeysa's constitutional rights to due process and free speech," said Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat congresswoman from the state.
She accused the Trump administration of continuing to "abduct students with legal status" and referred to Ozturk as a "political prisoner."
The past month has seen several high-profile student arrests, notably Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident, and Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral researcher from India.
Like Ozturk, Khalil and Suri were students with legal status in the United States who have expressed pro-Palestinian opinions. Both were not formally accused of a crime, and in both cases, their deportation has been temporarily blocked by a judge.
Other related arrests have been reported, including an Iranian engineering student in Alabama and a Lebanese professor in Rhode Island. The latter was ultimately deported.
