US to revoke more student visas in coming days, announces Marco Rubio

The United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Friday. The move comes after the arrest and potential deportation of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil.

"In the days to come, you should expect more visas will be revoked as we identify people that we should have never allowed in," Rubio told reporters following a meeting of G7 foreign ministers.

The Trump administration is moving to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the United States who recently graduated from Columbia University and had helped lead high-profile campus protests against Israel's war in the Gaza Strip.


Should other visa or green card holders be worried?
Trump said Khalil's case was "the first arrest of many to come." Additionally, US Vice President JD Vance while commenting on Mahmoud Khalil said that 'a green card holder... doesn't have an indefinite right to be in the United States.'

One of Khalil's lawyers, Amy Greer, said that homeland security agents told her they had a warrant to revoke his student visa. When she informed them that Khalil did not have one, given that he was a permanent resident, she was told that the department had revoked his green card.

While US law grants free speech protections to all individuals, including immigrants, the Khalil case suggests that the government may seek ways to override those protections under national security or foreign policy justifications.

Legal experts argue that the government’s use of the foreign policy provision in Khalil’s case is particularly alarming. Bill Hing, a law professor at the University of San Francisco, warned that allowing the administration to equate political activism with a threat to foreign policy could have dangerous implications. “This sets a precedent where any green card holder expressing opinions contrary to government policy could face deportation,” he said.

(with agency inputs)