Rubio strips US visas from 300 ‘lunatics’ in crackdown on anti-Israel campus activism

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated Thursday he has canceled the visas of greater than 300 “lunatics” in a rising crackdown in opposition to anti-Israel activism on American college campuses.

Requested to verify stories of 300 visas stripped, Rubio stated: “Possibly greater than 300 at this level. We do it day by day.”

“Each time I discover one in all these lunatics, I take away their visas,” he advised reporters on a go to to Guyana.

“In some unspecified time in the future I hope we run out as a result of we’ve gotten rid of them,” Rubio stated.

Since President Donald Trump returned to workplace on January 20, Rubio has moved aggressively in opposition to college students on the forefront of on-campus anti-Israel protests in response to the Gaza conflict.

Essentially the most high-profile case is Mahmoud Khalil, who led protests at Columbia College in New York. He was arrested this month and brought to Louisiana forward of deportation proceedings, regardless of being a US everlasting resident.

Rubio was requested a few new case at Tufts College in Massachusetts the place immigration brokers arrested a Turkish doctoral scholar, Rumeysa Ozturk, who had written an opinion piece in a campus newspaper demanding that the college acknowledge a “genocide” in opposition to the Palestinians.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts, accused the Trump administration of transferring to “abduct college students with authorized standing.”

“It is a horrifying violation of Rumeysa’s constitutional rights to due course of and free speech. She should be instantly launched,” Pressley stated in an announcement.

The Trump administration has responded that the US constitutional safety of free speech doesn’t apply to non-US residents and has accused activist college students of making a harmful ambiance for Jewish college students.

With out commenting instantly on the Tufts case, Rubio stated: “If you happen to inform us that the explanation why you’re coming to the USA is not only since you wish to write op-eds, however since you wish to take part in actions which might be concerned in doing issues like vandalizing universities, harassing college students, taking up buildings, making a ruckus, we’re not going to provide you a visa.”

“If you happen to deceive us and get a visa after which enter the USA, and with that visa, take part in that kind of exercise, we’re going to remove your visa,” he stated.