Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked on Thursday to explain why a Tufts student from Turkey had her visa revoked and is now slated for deportation.
His answer could not have been more perfect.
Rubio calmly explained to the assembled journalists that coming to the United States to study at a college or university is a privilege and not a right, and that if people come here to destroy, harass, and take over college buildings, they will be sent packing.
He uses the analogy of inviting someone into your home. If a guest began vandalizing and destroying your home, you would eject that person.
Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
QUESTION: 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 that led to her visa being revoked and what was your State Department’s role in that process?
SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: We revoked her visa. It’s an F1 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, OK?
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 gonna 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 gonna 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 — they’re 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.
Watch all of this, it’s great:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio offers an explanation for deporting alleged terrorist sympathizer and Tufts PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk:
“Let me be abundantly clear: If you apply for a student visa to come to the United States and you say you’re coming not just to study, but to… pic.twitter.com/ioMuo9yEbl
— Bostonians Against Mayor Wu (@AntiWuCoalition) March 27, 2025
Rubio could not have been more clear and his response could not have been more logical. What is it about this that the left just doesn’t seem to understand?
