US vows to keep stripping visas after furor over snatched Turkish student

WASHINGTON

In this image taken from security camera video, Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Mass., Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

Turkish student detained by federal officers as she walked along a street in a Boston suburb is the latest supporter of Palestinian causes to be swept up in the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on colleges.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the revocation of the visa of Turkish student Rümeysa Öztürk and defended her arrest following an article she wrote criticizing Israel.

"We revoked her visa," Rubio said, referring to Öztürk’s F-1 student visa. "We give you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses."

"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," he added

Rubio, a staunch supporter of Israel, said that he personally signed off on every visa revocation and rejected charges he was violating U.S. protections of free speech.

Asked about a report on the number of visas he has stripped, mostly for students, Rubio said: "Maybe more than 300 at this point. We do it every day."

"Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas," he told reporters on a visit to Guyana.

"At some point I hope we run out because we've gotten rid of them," Rubio said.

Since his return to the White House on Jan. 20, Trump has moved aggressively against student activists and universities over the disruptive protests that swept U.S. colleges campuses in response to the Gaza war.

This week, a video went viral of a 30-year-old Turkish graduate student Öztürk being detained by masked, plain-clothed figures near Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Öztürk had penned an op-ed in a student newspaper decrying Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide." She now faces deportation.

Rubio, asked if Öztürk was being targeted over her writing in a student newspaper, said that she met his criteria for visa revocation without providing details.

"I would caution you against solely going off of what the media has been to identify" for the visa decision.

Rubio said that visas were a "gift" at the discretion of the State Department and not subject to any judicial review.

Immigration lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai, who said no charges have been filed against Öztürk, filed a petition seeking her and then an emergency motion.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani initially issued an order giving the government until March 28 to answer why Öztürk was being detained. Talwani also ordered that Öztürk not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without 48 hours advance notice.

The government said in its response on March 27 that it “will set forth the timeline” of Öztürk’s arrest and transfer from Massachusetts.

According to news outlet Axios, the Trump administration plans to impose restrictions on the admission processes of American universities for foreign students.

"Every institution with foreign students will undergo some form of review. In some cases, there may be so many bad apples in one place that it could lead to the revocation of the school's certification,” an official said.