Senator Marco Rubio reiterates calls to revoke visas of foreign students involved in widespread anti-Israel campus protests

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) renewed calls to strip student visas from those participating in anti-Israel protests on college campuses.

Just days after the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, Republicans began publicly calling on President Joe Biden to revoke the visas of foreign students if they expressed pro-Hamas sentiment.

Since then, protests at colleges have increased tenfold – with cases of threats of violence – and some universities are warning Jewish students and faculty to leave campus for their own safety.

“I saw another video of a Jewish student who had to call the police – he actually had to shame the police into escorting him so he could go to a part of the university where he had every right to be because of these zombies , this anti-Semitic left. Crazies that the president should have been very adamant about,” Rubio told Fox News host Shannon Bream on Sunday.

The senator is also doubling down on calls for students who are not U.S. citizens to be sent back to their countries if they participate in these widespread demonstrations.

Students on college campuses across the US have set up encampments and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks to amplify calls for a ceasefire from Israel. Pictured: Protesters participate in prayer at the anti-Israel encampment at George Washington University in DC on Friday, May 3

But he claims that even after seven months of war, Biden is not taking action because he is “weak” and “weak.”

“Joe Biden should have said very early on, as I asked him in October, if… you’re not American, you’re here on a visa, and you’re here to teach, or you’re here to go to school and you are out there chanting on behalf of Hamas and Hezbollah and these terrorist groups… you should have your visa revoked and eliminated,” Rubio said.

He cited examples of what he said were atrocities committed during these demonstrations, including defacing the George Washington statue at GW University in Washington, DC.

The Republican added that any noncitizen with a student or education visa who takes down American flags and hangs Palestinian flags should be removed.

While several universities have experienced disruptive demonstrations, Columbia University may be the best-known example of clashes between student protesters and their administrators, as well as between Republican lawmakers.

Students set up an encampment on the New York City campus and refused to take it down even after threats of law enforcement action to remove them.

Rubio says the protesters “hate America” ​​and that if they have visas, they should be immediately revoked and then removed from the country.

“(Biden) should have been very clear from the very beginning about which side we’re on,” the senator told Fox on Sunday morning, adding: “Look, there’s a bunch of Democratic donors, big Democratic donors who are behind the groups to stand. who finance all this.’

Protesters join arms outside Hamilton Hall to barricade students in the Columbia University building on April 30

Just a few weeks after the first Hamas attack on Israel, 19 Republican lawmakers joined forces to call on foreign students who expressed support for the terrorist group to have their visas revoked.

“We are writing to request information regarding the possible unlawful presence on U.S. soil of non-immigrants who have supported terrorist activities,” they said in a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The White House pushed back at the time, warning that the proposals would not comply with the First Amendment’s protections for free speech.

“I just want to tell you that you don’t have to agree with every sentiment expressed in a free country like this to support the idea of ​​the First Amendment and the idea of ​​peaceful protest. I’ll leave it at that,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said at the time.