Marco Rubio revocation: 300 ‘Lunatics’ lose U.S. visas over campus protests

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Thursday announced he had canceled visas of more than 300 "lunatics" in an expanding crackdown on anti-Israel activism on American university campuses. Since President Donald Trump's return to office on January 20, Rubio has acted swiftly against students at the center of on-campus anti-Israel demonstrations against the Gaza war.

Hundreds Lose Visas Over Protests

The most visible case is Mahmoud Khalil, who organized protests at Columbia University in New York. He was arrested this month and brought to Louisiana for deportation proceedings, although he is a US permanent resident. Rubio was questioned regarding a recent case at Tufts University in Massachusetts where immigration officials arrested a Turkish doctoral student, Rumeysa Ozturk, who had published an opinion column in a university newspaper calling on the university to acknowledge a "genocide" against the Palestinians. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, charged the Trump administration with advancing to "abduct students with legal status."

University Demonstrations

The Trump administration has replied that the US free speech protection under the constitution does not cover non-US citizens and blamed activist students for establishing a hazardous environment for Jewish students. Referring not at all to the Tufts case, Rubio added: "If you tell us that the reason that you're visiting the United States is not merely that you wish to write op-eds, but because you wish to engage in movements that are involved in vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, raising a ruckus, we're not going to grant you a visa."