US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has confirmed the revocation of the visa of Turkish PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, and defended her arrest following an article she co-authored criticising Israel.
"We revoked her visa," Rubio told a news conference in Guyana on Thursday, referring to Ozturk's F1 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."
Rubio defended the decision, saying foreign students engaging in activism that disrupts university life would face similar consequences.
"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 ... We're not going to give you a visa," he said.
"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.
However, Rubio did not provide any evidence linking Ozturk to violence.
Her friends and family say she was arrested following a campaign by Canary Mission, a pro-Israel website that blacklists pro-Palestinian students and activists, stemming from an article she co-authored criticising Israel.
Rumeysa Ozturk was detained on March 25 while heading to an iftar dinner.
'We do it every day'
Rubio added that he has cancelled the visas of more than 300 "lunatics" in a growing crackdown against pro-Palestine activism on American university campuses.
Asked to confirm reports of 300 visas stripped, 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.
"At some point I hope we run out because we've gotten rid of them," Rubio said.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily last March criticising the university’s response to student demands that Tufts "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide," disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.
Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University and Fulbright scholar, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) late on Tuesday near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts while heading to an iftar dinner to break her fast during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, according to her lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai.
She organised a Thanksgiving potluck
She was taken into custody by masked federal agents in broad daylight, with authorities claiming she engaged in activities supporting the Palestinian resistance group Hamas — an allegation her family and advocates strongly deny.
No charges have been filed against Ozturk, according to her lawyer.
A viral video captured the moments of her detention, showing masked individuals handcuffing her and forcibly taking away her phone.
The ICE Locator website indicated that Ozturk was being held at a detention facility in Louisiana.
"The only thing I know of that Rumeysa organised was a Thanksgiving potluck," said Jennifer Hoyden, a close friend who studied with Ozturk at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
"There’s a very important distinction between writing a letter supporting the student Senate and taking the kind of action they’re accusing her of, which I’ve seen no evidence of."
Her arrest appears to be part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport students who, he says, engage in "pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity," a label the administration has applied broadly to those who criticise US ally Israel and protest its genocide in Gaza.
Earlier this month, immigration enforcement agents arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident and Palestinian activist who played a prominent part in protests at Columbia last year. He is now facing possible deportation.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney specialist from Lebanon who was due to start as an assistant professor at Brown University, was deported earlier this month — after a federal judge ordered that she not be removed until a hearing could be held.
Homeland Security officials said Alawieh was deported, despite having a US visa, alleging she supported a Hezbollah leader.
A University of Alabama student has also been detained by ICE, the university confirmed.
The Crimson White, the student newspaper, reported that Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student from Iran studying mechanical engineering, had been detained. But neither university nor the newspaper explained why Doroudi had been taken into ICE custody.
