In a heated Senate hearing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced off with Senator Chris Van Hollen over the revocation of student visas linked to activism on campuses. Rubio asserted that visas would be denied for students intending to disrupt educational environments. This was exemplified in the case of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who lost her visa after publishing an op-ed. Van Hollen challenged Rubio's stance, questioning whether merely expressing opinions violated First Amendment rights. The exchange highlighted the controversial nature of visa policies regarding student activism and political expression in the U.S.
If you come to the United States and study, and if you tell me that you're coming to the United States to lead campus crusades to take over libraries and burn down buildings and commit acts of violence, we're not going to let that happen, Rubio said, defending his position.
The bottom line is, if you're coming here to stir up trouble on our campuses, we will deny you a visa. And if you have a visa, we'll revoke it, Rubio continued.
Writing an op-ed for the student newspapers is disrupting the foreign policy of the United States? Van Hollen pressed.
In fact, the other day, some individuals led a riot. I forgot what university it was. And I asked, please, can you find the arrest records of all the people that were arrested at that riot, at that campus? Because if any of them have a visa, we're going to revoke them, Rubio concluded.
Collection
[
|
...
]