US Secretary of State Says Over 300 Visas May Have Been Revoked Over Pro-Palestine Campus Activism

Guyana (Quds News Network)- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the State Department may have revoked more than 300 visas as more than half a dozen students were targeted by the Trump administration in recent weeks as part of a campaign aimed at silencing pro-Palestine voices on campuses.

During a press conference in Guyana, Rubio said the Trump administration was looking every day for “these lunatics”. His comments were in response to a question about Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student who was detained by federal immigration authorities on Tuesday near Boston by masked and plainclothes agents.

“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 visas,” Rubio said.

“At some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”

Rubio confirmed that the State Department revoked Ozturk’s visa and said Washington would take away any visa that has been previously issued if students participated in actions such as “vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus”. Rubio did not say if Ozturk participated in those activities.

Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Activism

A video emerged showing Ozturk, a Tufts University graduate student, being arrested in the street in Massachusetts by ICE officers. The DHS said she was arrested for “glorifying and supporting terrorists” and added that she had shown support for Hamas.
Ozturk is one of several foreign nationals connected to prestigious American universities who were arrested under the Trump administration for their pro-Palestine and anti-genocide activism.

Earlier this month, pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE. Khalil had been one of the leaders of pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University last spring.

He was taken from his student apartment building in lower Manhattan, and then to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before being transferred to Louisiana.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump described the arrest of Khalil as “the first arrest of many to come”.

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.

Columbia University also lost $400 million in federal funding after being named on a list of schools accused of failure to address antisemitism. 60 universities could also face funding cuts if federal investigations show evidence that they have permitted antisemitic behavior.

As he campaigned for a second term in the White House, Trump pledged to stop the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that erupted after Israel launched its deadly war on Gaza and deport any foreign students involved.
Upon taking office, he began to issue executive actions signalling he would carry out his threats.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in a White House fact sheet.

“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Earlier, Yale University suspended Iranian scholar Helyeh Doutaghi from its law school after a Jewish news website, which uses AI to generate articles, accused her of being a member of a ‘terrorist group.’ Doutaghi said she is a “loud and proud” supporter of Palestinian rights.

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and post-doctoral fellow working at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, was detained by US customs agents, accusing him of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”. The US administration intends to deport him after labeling him as a threat to U.S. foreign policy due to his and his wife’s support for Palestinian rights.

Ozturk is now the third international student known to be transferred to Louisiana after being detained by federal officers. Khalil and Badar Khan Suri were both transferred to an ICE detention facility in Jena.

Columbia student Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old permanent U.S. resident, also faces a deportation order but a judge ruled this week that she cannot be detained.

Federal immigration agents also arrested University of Alabama doctoral student from Iran, Alireza Doroudi and is currently being held in a county jail, awaiting transfer to an immigration facility, said his attorney, David Rozas, according to reports.

The latest person to be targeted by federal immigration agents is an Iranian doctoral student. Alireza Doroudi, who is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday morning from his home around 5am. It is not clear why the student was targeted.