Rubio Reports Thousands of US Visas Revoked as Crackdown Continues

Rubio Reports Thousands of US Visas Revoked as Crackdown Continues

Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to ramp up deportations and revoke student visas as part of its wide-ranging efforts to fulfill his hardline immigration agenda.

By RMN News Service

Washington – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday (May 20) the number of visas he has revoked was probably in the thousands. He added that he believed there was still more to do. This estimate is an increase from March, when he stated the State Department may have revoked more than 300 visas.

Rubio clarified that the 300 revoked visas were a combination of student and visitor visas. He stated that he signed each action. Speaking before a Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees foreign affairs, Rubio emphasized that a visa is not considered a right but rather a privilege.

Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to ramp up deportations and revoke student visas as part of its wide-ranging efforts to fulfill his hardline immigration agenda. Administration officials have stated that student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza. Officials call these actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy and accuse them of being pro-Hamas.

Critics of Trump have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. During the hearing with Rubio, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley raised concerns. Merkley stated that the idea that one individual could, based on their opinion of someone’s potential future activity or expected activity, toss somebody’s visa, seems to him an extraordinary violation of due process.

The reports mention a specific case earlier this month involving a Tufts University student from Turkey. This student was held for over six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

She was released from custody after a federal judge granted her bail. U.S. District Judge William Sessions, during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, ordered the immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk. She is described as being at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.