Secretary of State Marco Rubio strongly pushed back on claims that the United States did something wrong after he stripped a foreign national of their student visa because of the individual’s support for Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, and his participation in anti-Semitic activities at Columbia University.
Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that the individual came into the U.S. on a visa, which means they are a visitor in the country.
“We can deny you that visa,” he said. “We can deny you that if you tell us when you apply, ‘Hi, I’m trying to get into the United States on a student visa. I am a big supporter of Hamas, a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children, that rapes teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies than live hostages.'”
“If you tell us that you are in favor of a group like this, and if you tell us when you apply for your visa, ‘and by the way, I intend to come to your country as a student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, anti-Semitic activities, I intend to shut down your universities,'” he continued. “If you told us all these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa.”
Rubio explained that anyone in the U.S. on a visa who engages in that type of activity will be removed from the country.
“This is not about free speech,” he said. “This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way. So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason.”
.@SecRubio on arrest of Mahmoud Khalil: "This is not about free speech. This is about people that don't have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card." pic.twitter.com/eej8vyBLKm
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 12, 2025
