Secretary of State Marco Rubio boasted Thursday that no less than 300 pupil visas have been revoked since President Donald Trump took workplace and that they’re “looking every day” for extra.
“It 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 visa,” he stated at a press convention in Guyana when requested in regards to the variety of visas revoked in relation to pupil protests.
“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,” he stated. “So we’ll revoke your visa, and once your visa is revoked, you’re in the country illegally and you have to leave.”
The Trump administration has focused college students who participated in anti-Israel demonstrations on faculty campuses final yr, notably at Columbia College the place a campus constructing was briefly taken over.
Columbia final week agreed to implement quite a lot of coverage modifications, together with to its disciplinary, protest and masks guidelines, after Trump threatened to revoke all of its federal funding if it didn’t make main modifications to the way it handles pupil protests.
Among the many newest detentions is a Tufts College graduate pupil from Turkey, who was seen on Tuesday being detained on the streets of Boston by U.S. immigration officers sporting plain garments and masks. Rumeysa Ozturk, who was within the U.S. on an F1 visa, had co-authored an op-ed final yr that urged Tufts’ president to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from corporations with ties to Israel.
Her authorized group referred to as her detainment by the Division of Human Companies illegal, in a press release Thursday.
“We should all be horrified at the way DHS abducted Rumeysa in broad daylight. No person, regardless of their citizenship status, should be targeted over their views, especially in support of human rights,” stated a spokesperson with Khanbabai Immigration Regulation.
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“Rumeysa has not been accused of committing any crime and DHS has not produced any evidence that she was engaged in any unlawful activities. Meanwhile, there is plenty of evidence of U.S. supplied bombs being dropped on Gaza killing over 1,000 people, including over 250 children in the last week. It appears the only thing Rumeysa is being targeted for is her right to free speech.”
Rubio stood by Ozturk’s visa being revoked when requested about her detention on Thursday.
“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. 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,” he stated. “We’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up and, by the way, we’re looking for gang members as well.”
