US administration revokes over 6,000 student visas

WASHINGTON — The administration of US President Donald Trump has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and breaking the law, including a small minority for "support for terrorism", a State Department official said on Monday.

The move, first reported by Fox News Digital, comes as the US administration has adopted a particularly hard-line approach toward student visas as part of its immigration crackdown, tightening social media vetting and expanding screening. Directives from the State Department this year have ordered US diplomats abroad to be vigilant against any applicants whom Washington may see as hostile to the United States and with a history of political activism.

Around 4,000 visas were canceled because the visitors broke the law, with the vast majority being for assault, the official said. Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and burglary were other offenses, the official added.

About 200 to 300 visas were revoked for "terrorism", the official said, citing a rule about visa ineligibility under the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual. The rule identifies ineligibility grounds generally as "engaging in terrorist activities" and "having certain links to terrorist organizations".

The official did not specify which groups the students whose visas have been revoked were supporting. President Donald Trump has clashed with several top-level US universities, accusing them of becoming bastions of antisemitism following large-scale student protests advocating for Palestinian rights amid the Gaza conflict. In his clash with Harvard, Trump has frozen funding for investigations and threatened to remove the university's tax-exempt status, prompting several European nations to increase research grants to attract talent. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he has revoked the visas of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, including students, because they got involved in activities that he said went against US foreign policy priorities.

Officials have said that student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to US foreign policy and accusing them of being "pro-Hamas". A Tufts University student from Turkiye was held for over six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school's response to Israel's fighting in Gaza. She was released from custody after a federal judge granted her bail.

Critics have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Agencies via Xinhua