Marco Rubio Defends Arrest of Turkish Tufts Graduate Student

Editor's Note: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that he revoked the visa of a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University who was subsequently arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Somerville, Massachusetts on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.Rubio made the statement during a press conference in Guyana on Thursday, March 27, 2025.A transcript of Rubio’s remarks is below, based on a video of the press conference..Reuters Reporter: Mr. Secretary, a Turkish student in Boston was detained and handcuffed on the street by plainclothes agents. A year ago, she wrote an opinion piece about the Gaza war. Could you help us understand what the specific action she took led to her visa being revoked? Marco Rubio: Yeah. Reuters Reporter: And what was your State Department's role in that process? Marco Rubio: Oh, we revoked her visa. She's – it's an F-1 visa, I believe.We revoked it, and here's why. And I'll say it again. I've said it everywhere. Let me be abundantly clear. O.K.?If you go apply for a visa right now anywhere in the world -- let me just send this message out -- 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.So it's just that simple. I think it's crazy, I think it's stupid for any country in the world to welcome people into their country that are going to go to your universities as visitors. They're visitors. And say, “I'm going to your universities to start a riot. I'm going to your universities to take over a library and harass people.”I don't care what movement you're involved in. Why would any country in the world allow people to come and disrupt? We gave you a visa to come and study, and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses. And if we've given you a visa and then you decide to do that, we're going to take it away.I encourage every country to do that, by the way. Because I think it's crazy to invite students into your country that are coming onto your campus and destabilizing it. We're just not going to have it. So we'll revoke your visa, and once your visa is revoked, you're illegally in the country and you have to leave.Every country in the world has a right to decide who comes in as a visitor and who doesn't. If you invite me into your home because you say, “I want to come to your house for dinner,” and I go to your house and I start putting mud on your couch spray painting your kitchen, I bet you you're going to kick me out.Well, we're going to do the same thing if you come into the United States as a visitor and create a ruckus for us. We don't want it. We don't want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country. But you're not going to do it in our country. [Some crosstalk, as Rubio asked the press spokesman moderating the press conference to allow a follow-up question about the arrest of the Turkish graduate student at Tufts University] Reporter: Can you confirm, we’re reporting that 300 visas have been permanently revoked, 300 -- Marco Rubio: Maybe more. 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 visa. Reporter: You’re saying it could be more than 300 visas. Marco Rubio: Sure, I hope – I mean, at some point I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of ‘em. But we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.

Marco Rubio Defends Arrest of Turkish Tufts Graduate Student

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