In the last seven months alone, the United States’ crackdown on immigrant students so far has yielded 6,000 revoked student visas, the U.S. State Department led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, August 18.
According to an official of the State Department, which advises the U.S. president on foreign policy issues, the students’ visas were revoked due to overstays and law violations such as assault, driving under the influence, burglary, and “support of terrorism.”
CNN reports that allegations of terrorism activities made up 200 to 300 of the revocations.
Rubio, who assumed his position in January 2025 after being nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump, has specifically promised to target students from China and students protesting against Israel’s aggression on Palestine.
“We do it every day, every time I find one of these lunatics,” he said of revoking the student visas of pro-Palestine protesters in March. He has also accused these students of antisemitism and supporting terrorism.
In June, U.S. embassies and consulates were ordered by the State Department to vet student visa applicants for “hostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”
The U.S. Embassy in the Philippines has since then required Filipino student visa applicants to provide their social media details. “We use all available information in our visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to U.S. national security,” the embassy said in an announcement.
Rubio has also insisted that “there is no constitutional right” to student visas. “A student visa is something we decide to give you,” he said in an EWTN interview on August 7.
Due to the U.S.’s tighter student visa requirements, the NAFSA: Association of International Educators forecasts a potential 30 to 40 percent decline in new international student enrollment, which may lead to a 15 percent drop in overall enrollment in higher education institutions this fall.
It is unknown how many of the revoked student visas belonged to Filipino students. The U.S. Embassy in the Philippines reported that during the 2023–2024 academic year, 4,100 Filipino students pursued their higher education in the U.S., the highest in 15 years.
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