In the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term, the State Department revoked the visas of 4,000 foreign students, 90 percent of whom have criminal records, the State Department confirmed to Fox News Digital.
“Our visa system has lacked oversight and accountability,” a senior State Department official told the outlet. “Over the past 100 days, the Trump Administration has worked to fix a broken system.”
A source additionally told the outlet that Secretary Marco Rubio “has led the State Department to take a surgical vetting approach to ensure individuals in America as visitors are abiding by our laws.”
“We established an action working group, which has resulted in thousands of visas being revoked because these individuals broke our laws. This is what effective governance looks like,” the source said.
According to the New York Post, which first reported on the number, some serious crimes included arson, robbery, domestic abuse, wildlife and human trafficking, child endangerment, and driving under the influence. More than 500 students whose visas were revoked have criminal assault records, the Post reported.
“They came, and they were breaking the law with no consequences,” a source told the Post. “We set up a special action team to handle this.”
A State Department spokesperson additionally told Fox News Digital that the department “revokes visas every day in order to secure America’s borders and keep our communities safe — and will continue to do so.” The spokesperson explained that the “process is ongoing” and “the number of revocations is dynamic.”
The State Department worked with the Department of Homeland Security to cross-check student visa holders’ information with law enforcement records, the Post reported. Officials told the outlet the department is only revoking visas for international students who commit serious crimes.
A source told the outlet there were cases of foreign students committing smaller crimes “like littering” where those visas were not revoked.
Students whose visas were revoked mostly came from Asia or the Middle East and either left of their own accord or will soon be deported, according to the report.
More recently, hundreds of visas have been revoked for international students tied to anti-Israel protests, according to the department.
“If you come into the United States as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it,” Rubio previously said, specifically citing international students who come to the U.S. and “vandalize a library” or “take over a campus.”
“So when we identify lunatics like these, we take away their student visa,” he said at a Cabinet meeting on April 10. “No one’s entitled to a student visa. The press covers student visas like there’s some sort of birthright. No, a student visa is like me inviting you into my home. If you come into my home and put all kinds of crap on my couch, I’m going to kick you out of my house. And so, you know, that’s what we’re doing with our country thanks to the president.”
