Trump administration advances immigration crackdown on foreign student protesters

The Trump administration is ramping up penalties against students who engaged in protests against the war in Gaza, revoking the visas of hundreds of alleged demonstrators.

“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,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Thursday press conference, estimating that more than 300 student visas have been revoked so far.

“If we’ve given you a visa and then you decide to do that, we’re going to take it away.”

Rubio’s comments come as several headlines have emerged regarding the detainment of foreign students in the United States due to their participation in pro-Palestine demonstrations.

This week, surveillance video emerged showing Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Öztürk being arrested near her off-campus apartment in Somerville, Mass., by federal agents.

Öztürk, who was heading to meet friends for an Iftar dinner to break her Ramadan fast, was quickly surrounded by masked, plainclothes officers and taken into custody.

The visibly frightened Turkish-born PhD student raised her hands and let out a scream as the agents closed in on her and took her phone.

“I know this seems scary,” one agent said. “We’re the police.”

A bystander replied, “Well, you don’t look like it. Why are you hiding your faces?”

Öztürk, 30, is currently being held in a federal facility in Louisiana.

Last year, Öztürk co-authored an op-ed for the school’s newspaper criticizing the university’s response to the war in Gaza and demanding that the institution take steps to “hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law.”

Attorney Masha Khanbabai did not return an NPR request for comment.

In a letter to the Tufts community on Tuesday, university President Sunil Kumar said the school had no warning that Öztürk would be targeted for detainment and had not provided authorities with any information about her before her arrest.

“We recognize how frightening and distressing this situation is for her, her loved ones, and the larger community here at Tufts, especially our international students, staff, and faculty who may be feeling vulnerable or unsettled by these events,” Kumar wrote in a statement, describing the footage of Öztürk’s arrest as “disturbing.”

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Somerville on Wednesday demanding Öztürk’s release and an end to what detractors have likened to state-sanctioned kidnapping.

Rubio pledged that more of these arrests would follow, saying student activists pose a threat to U.S. national security and, without providing evidence, accusing them of causing damage to university property.

“Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” he said on Thursday.

“We’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”