Secretary Rubio says at least 300 foreign students’ visas have been revoked

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday that the Trump administration has revoked over 300 student visas. His comments come two days after federal officers took Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University, into custody.
• Rubio emphasized that students applying for visas with intentions to disrupt campuses would be denied entry. The administration is also considering preventing certain universities from enrolling foreign students with “pro-Hamas” views.
• Critics, like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, warn this could escalate tensions.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday the Trump administration has revoked at least 300 student visas from foreign students.

“Maybe more, might be than 300 at this point,” Rubio said. “We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away the visa.”

His comments came two days after federal immigration officers took Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national PhD student at Tufts University, into custody Tuesday.

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A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the student “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.” The spokesperson did not specify what those activities were.

“Oh, we revoked her visa. It’s an F1 visa, I believe. We revoked it, and here’s why. And I’ll say it again. I said it everywhere. Let me be abundantly clear. If you go apply for a visa right now anywhere in the world, let me just send this message out: 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,” Rubio said.

Ozturk is currently being detained in a detention facility in Louisiana.

Earlier this month, authorities took Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student and green card holder, into custody. The administration said he played a major role in disruptive pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia’s campus last year. Khalil maintains his innocence and points to his right of free speech to protest.

Senior Justice and State Department officials told Axios that the administration is also considering plans to prevent certain colleges and universities from enrolling foreign students if a significant number of them are “pro-Hamas.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told Axios that the premise of decertifying entire universities is a “worrying escalation.”

“The revocation of student visas should not be used to punish and filter out ideas disfavored by the federal government,” the group said in a statement back in January. “The strength of our nation’s system of higher education derives from the exchange of the widest range of views, even unpopular or dissenting ones.”