On Wednesday, the State Department revoked the visa of a study abroad student, marking the first time this has happened under the new Trump administration. The student, nor the US university, has been identified, but the reason has been revealed. According to the State Department, it was due to “legal constraints,” and then went on to provide more details. The State Department said in a statement: "Yesterday evening (March 5), we revoked the first visa of an alien who was previously cited for criminal behavior in connection with Hamas-supporting disruptions.” The federal agency added: "This individual was a university student. ICE will proceed with removing this person from the country.” This comes on the heels of multiple calls for action from Trump, that internationals students’ backgrounds be assessed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is launching an AI-driven effort to revoke the visas of foreigners in the US who “appear pro-Hamas” in a crackdown targeting pro-Palestine protests on college campuses, Axios reported on Thursday. The report said the effort will involve AI-assisted reviews of social media accounts of tens of thousands of foreign students in the US on visas that will look for “evidence of alleged terrorist sympathies expressed after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.”
The State Department has yanked the first visa of a foreign student linked to “Hamas-supporting disruptions” after President Trump vowed to crack down on those involved in anti-Israel protests on college campuses. “We revoked the first visa of an alien who was previously cited for criminal behavior in connection with Hamas-supporting disruptions,” a State Department spokesperson said in a Thursday statement first obtained by Fox News. “This individual was a university student. [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] will proceed with removing this person from the country.” The move comes just days after Trump promised to halt all federal funds for any educational institution that allows “illegal protests” — and to unmask and even imprison agitators. The commander-in-chief issued the warning as disruptive pro-Hamas demonstrations have rocked college campuses across the country. His administration has also vowed to pull more than $50 million in government contracts from Columbia University due to the Ivy League school’s alleged inaction on clamping down on anti-Israel protests there.
