Rubio Issues Blunt Warning To Foreign Students Who Want To 'Tear Up' Campuses As Activists

2 days ago

At a press briefing in Georgetown, Guyana, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a warning to foreign students who come to the U.S.

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Transcript

00:01Hello, Mr. Secretary.

00:02Hello, Mr. President.

00:03Thank you for taking questions from us.

00:04We appreciate it.

00:05Humeyra Pamuk from Reuters.

00:06Mr. Secretary, a Turkish student in Boston was detained and handcuffed on the street

00:07by plainclothes agents.

00:08A year ago, she wrote an opinion piece about the Gaza War.

00:09Could you help us understand what the specific action she took led to her visa being revoked?

00:10Yeah.

00:11And what was your State Department's role in that?

00:12Well, I don't know.

00:13I don't know.

00:14I don't know.

00:15I don't know.

00:16I don't know.

00:17I don't know.

00:18I don't know.

00:19I don't know.

00:20I don't know.

00:21I don't know.

00:22I don't know.

00:23I don't know.

00:24I don't know.

00:25Let me...

00:26So a year ago, she wrote an opinion piece about the Gaza War.

00:27Could you help us understand what the specific action she took led to her visa being revoked?

00:28Yeah.

00:29And what was your State Department's role in that process?

00:30Oh.

00:31We revoked her visa.

00:32It's an F1 visa, I believe.

00:33We revoked it, and here's why.

00:34And I'll say it again.

00:35I've said it everywhere.

00:36Let me be abundantly clear, OK?

00:37If you go apply for a visa right now, anywhere in the world...

00:38Let me just send this message out.

00:39If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that

00:40the reason why you're coming to the United States...

00:41It's not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements

00:54that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities,

00:57harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus,

01:01we're not going to give you a visa.

01:03If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States

01:06and with that visa participate in that sort of activity,

01:09we're going to take away your visa.

01:10And once you've lost your visa, you're no longer legally

01:13in the United States and we have a right, like every country

01:16in the world has a right, to remove you from our country.

01:18So it's just that simple.

01:20I think it's crazy.

01:20I think it's stupid for any country in the world

01:23to welcome people into their country that are going to go

01:25to your universities as visitors.

01:27They're visitors and say,

01:29I'm going to your universities to start a riot.

01:32I'm going to your universities to take

01:33over a library and harass people.

01:36I don't care what movement you're involved in.

01:38Why would any country in the world allow people

01:39to come and disrupt?

01:41We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree,

01:44not to become a social activist that tears

01:46up our university campuses.

01:48And if we've given you a visa and then you decide to do that,

01:50we're going to take it away.

01:51I encourage every country to do that, by the way,

01:54because I think it's crazy to invite students into your country

01:57that are coming onto your campus and destabilizing it.

01:59We're just not going to have it.

02:00So we'll revoke your visa and once your visa is revoked,

02:03you're illegally in the country and you have to leave.

02:05Every country in the world has a right to decide who comes

02:07in as a visitor and who doesn't.

02:09If you invite me into your home because you say,

02:12I want to come to your house for dinner and I go to your house

02:14and I start putting mud on your couch

02:16and spray painting your kitchen,

02:17I bet you you're going to kick me out.

02:19Well, we're going to do the same thing if you come

02:21into the United States as a visitor

02:23and create a ruckus for us.

02:24We don't want it.

02:24We don't want it in our country.

02:25Go back and do it in your country, but you're not going

02:27to do it in our country.

02:29Sure. Just tell me your follow-up and I'll tell everybody.

02:32And depending on your question, I'll answer it or not.

02:35Okay.

02:36Okay.

Rubio Issues Blunt Warning To Foreign Students Who Want To 'Tear Up' Campuses As Activists

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