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The Trump administration is looking to deport pro-Palestinian students who are legally in the United States, citing national security. Critics say that violates free speech protections.
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State Department Revoked Visa of Tufts University Student, Rubio Says
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the State Department under his direction had revoked the visas of more than 300 people and was continuing to revoke visas daily.
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re 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’re not going to give you a visa. If you lie to us, and get a visa and then enter the United States and with that visa participate in that sort of activity, we’re going to take away your visa. And once you’ve lost your visa, you’re no longer legally in the United States. And we have a right, like every country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country. Maybe more — 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 visa.” Reporter: “You’re saying it could be more than 300 visas?” “I mean, at some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them. But we’re looking every day.”
Published March 27, 2025Updated March 28, 2025, 8:49 a.m. ET
The Trump administration is trying to deport pro-Palestinian students and academics who are legally in the United States, a new front in its clash with elite schools over what it says is their failure to combat antisemitism.
The White House asserts that these moves — many of which involve immigrants with visas and green cards — are necessary because those taken into custody threaten national security. But some legal experts say that the administration is trampling on free speech rights and using lower-level laws to crack down on activism.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the State Department under his direction had revoked the visas of roughly 300 people and was continuing to revoke visas daily. He did not specify how many of those people had taken part in campus protests or acted to support Palestinians but said “there’s a lot of them now.”
Immigration officials are known to have pursued at least nine people in apparent connection to this effort since the start of March.
The detentions and efforts to deport people who are in the country legally reflect an escalation of the administration’s efforts to restrict immigration, as it also seeks to deport undocumented immigrants en masse.
Here is what we know about the college detentions.
Who is being targeted?
The nine people who have been pursued and, in some cases, detained by federal officials include current and former students and professors. Most of them have publicly expressed pro-Palestinian views. Some have green cards, making them lawful permanent residents. Others have student visas, which allows foreign nationals to enter the United States for full-time study.
