Rubio Lays Down the Law After Reporter Asks Why Activist Student’s Visa Was Suddenly Revoked

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is laying down the law: If you get a student visa to the United States, you’re here to study.

You’re not here to occupy buildings and clash with police. Not to disrupt class and terrorize Jewish students. Study. Period.

That was the point he drove home after a reporter asked him about the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Ph.D student at Massachusetts’ Tufts University who was arrested by plain-clothes federal agents Tuesday after her visa was revoked for taking part in pro-Palestinian protests, the Associated Press reported.

Those who are fighting her deportation say she merely wrote an Op-Ed defending the Palestinian cause and claim authorities haven’t given a specific reason why her visa has been revoked. A U.S. judge barred Ozturk from being moved out of the state of Massachusetts by the Department of Homeland Security without notice to the court while her case works its way through the system, but she had already been taken to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana by the time of the ruling.

Asked about the detention during a news conference in Guyana on Thursday, Rubio made it clear that the government believes it has a solid case against Ozturk — and that her case should serve as an example for others.

“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we are not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said.

He likened it to being an unruly guest in someone else’s house.

“If you invite me into your home … and I start putting mud on your couch and spray painting your kitchen, I bet you’re going to kick me out,” Rubio said.

“We’re going to do the same thing if you come into the U.S. as a visitor and create a ruckus for us,” he continued. “We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campus. And if we’ve given you a visa and you decide to do that, we’re going to take it away.”

.@SecRubio on detained Turkish student: “We revoked her visa…We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses. If we’ve given you a visa and then you decide to do that we’re going to take it away. pic.twitter.com/s6yKQ2WqwY

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 27, 2025

“We don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, Axios reported that over 300 students have had their visas revoked as part of the “Catch and Revoke” program Rubio’s State Department has initiated in response to foreign participants in oft-violent pro-Hamas protests that wracked American campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks perpetrated against Israel and the subsequent war.

Rubio confirmed the meat of the report in the same media briefing.

RUBIO: We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa

REPORTER: You’re saying it could be more than 300?

RUBIO: Sure. At some point I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them. pic.twitter.com/l2RprBGoNQ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2025

“It might be more than 300 at this point,” he told reporters.

“We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” he added. “At some point, I hope we run out because we have gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”

The highest-profile student activist that’s been slated for deportation is Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure in the Columbia University pro-Hamas riots.

Khalif’s case is slightly different in that he’s also a green-card holder, but the State Department plans to lean on 8 U.S. Code § 1227 in removing him: “In general, an alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable,” it said.

Do we want pro-Hamas protesters roaming our campuses as part of a roving rabblement that vandalizes school property and terrorizes students based on their religion, race, or ethnicity? Of course not. No country would allow this from visitors, and our immigration law has ample recourse for federal authorities to use in order to put a stop to it. One hopes we run out of these lunatics quickly — but however many it takes, that’s how many should be deported. Period.

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