US: Rubio says he may have revoked 'more than 300' visas over pro-Palestine campus activism

 The latest person to be targeted by federal immigration agents is an Iranian doctoral student

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference with Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali (not pictured) in Georgetown, Guyana, on 27 March 2025 (Nathan Howard/Reuters)

By Syma Mohammed

Published date: 27 March 2025 21:08 GMT | Last update: 11 hours 47 mins ago

The US State Department may have revoked more than 300 visas, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio on Thursday said the Trump administration was looking every day for "these lunatics" after federal immigration authorities detained and revoked the visa of a Turkish student.

The announcement is sure to send shockwaves through the international student community.

"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 during a press conference in Guyana, as reported by Reuters.

"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."

His comments were in response to a question about Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student who was detained by federal immigration officials on Tuesday near Boston by masked and plainclothes agents.

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.

Friends of Ozturk believe she may have been targeted because of a doxxing campaign for co-authoring an opinion article last year in the university newspaper, Tufts Daily, renewing calls for the university to adopt the Tufts Community Senate Resolutions, to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, apologize for University President Sunil Kumar’s statements, disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel”.

Ozturk's detention is the first known immigration-related arrest of a Boston-area student to be carried out by Trump's administration, which has detained or sought to detain several foreign-born students who are legally in the US and are accused of being involved in pro-Palestinian protests.

The latest person to be targeted by federal immigration agents is an Iranian doctoral student.

Iranian student 

Alireza Doroudi, who is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, was reportedly picked up on Tuesday morning from his home around 5am. It is not clear why the student was targeted.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s website said that an Iranian with the same name was being detained and in custody, but did not specify where.

Doroudi’s Facebook profile said that he had studied metallurgy at Amirkabir University of Technology, one of Iran's highest-ranked universities, which only accepts the top one percent of students who sit the entrance exam.

Alex House, a spokeswoman with the University of Alabama, said in a statement to Middle East Eye that a doctoral student had been detained but did not name the student due to “federal privacy laws”.

“The University of Alabama recently learned that a doctoral student has been detained off campus by federal immigration authorities,” she said.

“Federal privacy laws limit what can be shared about an individual student. International students studying at the University are valued members of the campus community.”

The University of Alabama student newspaper, The Crimson White, first reported on Doroudi's detention on Wednesday afternoon.

The Crimson White reported that Doroudi entered the US on a student visa in January 2023, but his visa was revoked six months later. Doroudi had contacted the university about it and had been told “that he could remain in the US legally as long as he maintained his student status”.

Earlier this month, recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who has a permanent US residency, was arrested by federal immigration officers in New York. He has not been charged with any crime and is being detained in Louisiana.

Columbia student Yunseo Chung, a permanent US resident, also faced a deportation order, but US District judge Naomi Reice Buchwald granted a temporary restraining order against the federal government on Tuesday.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/secretary-state-marco-rubio-says-more-300-visas-have-been-revoked