US Revokes Over 300 Student Visas Due To Pro-Palestine Protests

The US State Department has revoked hundreds of visas and placed many more under scrutiny, primarily targeting foreign nationals involved in pro-Palestine activism.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the crackdown, stating that he had canceled visas for over 300 individuals he referred to as “lunatics” linked to campus pro-Palestine protests in the US. He also pledged that similar actions would continue daily.

Asked by reporters during a visit to Guyana in South America to confirm reports of 300 visas stripped, Rubio said: “Maybe more than 300 at this point. We do it every day, every time I find one of these lunatics.”

One recent example of the policy’s implementation involved the detention of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University on a Fulbright scholarship.

US immigration authorities arrested Ozturk in broad daylight, with masked agents in plainclothes, and revoked her visa.

Her arrest followed an op-ed she co-authored in her student newspaper expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) justified the action by alleging that she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.”

However, critics have condemned this as a direct attack on academic freedom, free speech, and personal liberties.

In addressing her case specifically, Rubio said: “We revoked her visa … once you’ve lost your visa, you’re no longer legally in the United States … if you come into the US as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country.”

The Trump administration has also introduced additional restrictive measures, including pausing green card processing for certain refugees and asylum seekers.

Additionally, a global directive has been issued instructing visa officers to deny entry to transgender athletes, despite their relatively small numbers.

In a statement to Fox News, the state department claimed that it had “revoked the visas of more than 20 individuals”, and said hundreds more were under consideration under the banner of what they call “national security concerns”.

“Overall, we continue to process hundreds of visa reviews to ensure visitors are not violating terms of their visas and do not pose a threat to the United States and our citizens,” the statement said.