Marco Rubio boasts of revoking hundreds of student visas over pro-Palestinian protests – live

Rubio says he has already revoked hundreds of visas from student protesters

Speaking to reporters in Guyana on Thursday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio defended his decision to revoke the visa of a Turkish student at Tufts, who co-wrote an opinion article critical of the school for not divesting from Israel, and said that he has already revoked hundreds of visas from student protesters he characterized as “lunatics”.

Asked about reports that 300 student visas had been revoked, Rubio replied: “It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”

US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke to reporters in Guyana on Thursday.

Asked what specifically had triggered the detention of Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts graduate student who was snatched off the street outside her home on Tuesday, Rubio pivoted to his general claim that any student who applied for a visa to study in the US would not have been allowed in to the country if they had said they wanted “to participate in movements that are involved in vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus”.

“I don’t care what movement you’re involved in”, Rubio added, “if we’ve given you a visa and you decided to do that, we’re going to take it away. I encourage every country to do that.

“If you come into the US as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country,” Rubio added.

Ozturk is from Turkey, where protests have been banned after the leading opposition candidate to run for president was suddenly arrested. Turkey’s state-run news agency, Anadolu, noted in its report on her arrest that the doctoral student had co-authored an opinion article in which the authors called on the university to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.

Key events

James Boasberg, the judge Donald Trump says should be impeached over his handling of court proceedings regarding Trump’s hardline immigration policy, is currently conducting a hearing in a lawsuit filed over Signalgate.

Trump complained about Boasberg earlier today, posting a long rant in which he called Boasberg’s assignment “disgraceful” and implied it was rigged against him.

“Boasberg, who is the Chief Judge of the DC District Court, seems to be grabbing the ‘Trump Cases’ all to himself, even though it is not supposed to happen that way,” Trump wrote, adding: “The good news is that it probably doesn’t matter, because it is virtually impossible for me to get an Honest Ruling in D.C. Our Nation’s Courts are broken, with New York and D.C. being the most preeminent of all in their Corruption and Radicalism. There must be an immediate investigation of this Rigged System, before it is too late!”

Now, Kyle Cheney of Politico reports that Boasberg felt obliged to begin his Thursday hearing with “a detailed explanation of the random case assignment process, emphasizing that he did not ask for or somehow proactively get this case”.

Boasberg has also “ordered the agencies who participated in the Signalgate chat to preserve all Signal messages between 11-15 March and to provide an update to the court about efforts to do so”.

A reminder, if it could possibly be needed: “Signalgate” refers to a group chat about airstrikes in Yemen, between top national security advisers and containing national security information, to which national security adviser Mike Waltz apparently inadvertently added Jeffery Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic Monthly.

More, from Hugo Lowell:

The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke for two whole minutes earlier, when he was asked about his decision to revoke a visa given to Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, a graduate student at Tufts University in Boston who co-wrote an op-ed critical of the school for not divesting from Israel.

Rubio’s remarks seem worth quoting at length – given his increasingly angry and harsh tone and given his involvement in other immigration enforcement actions such as the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate with a green card and an American wife who is nonetheless being held for deportation without being accused of committing a crime, under a law from 1952 – the heart of the Red Scare.

Rubio was once seen as the face of a new Republican party, potentially more friendly to immigrants.

In Guyana, he said:

We just send this message out: if you apply for a visa to enter the United States, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just that you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings and creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa if you lie to us, the United States, and with that visa, participate in that sort of activity, we’re going to take away your visa.

And once you’ve lost your visa, you’re no longer legal in the United States. And we have a right, like every country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country. So it’s just that simple.

I think it’s crazy. I think it’s stupid for any country in the world to welcome people into their country, they’re going to go to your universities as visitors … and say, ‘I’m going to your universities to start a riot. I’m going to your universities to take over a library and harass people.’ I don’t care what movement you’re involved (in). Why would any country in the world allow people to come and disrupt?

We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses. And if we’ve given you a visa, and then you decide to do that, we’re going to take it away. I encourage every country to do that, by the way … So we’ll revoke your visa, and once your visa is revoked, you’re illegally in the country and you have to leave.

Every country in the world has a right to decide who comes in as a visitor and who doesn’t. If [I] … say, ‘I want to come to your house for dinner, and I go to your house and I start putting mud on your couch and spray painting your kitchen,’ I bet you you’re going to kick me out. But we’re going to do the same thing if you come into the United States as a visitor and create a ruckus for us. We don’t want it, we don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country, but you’re not going to do it in our country.”

Ozturk wrote an opinion column. Friends said she was not active in campus protests. Reyyan Bilge, a friend, posted on X: “Rumeysa has been my student, colleague, friend for over a decade. She does not carry a hateful bone in her body, let alone being antisemitic.”

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, broke off from campaigning on Thursday, ahead of a general election next month, to address what he called “Canada’s response to the latest developments in the trade crisis”.

“Yesterday, in the latest salvo in his trade war, President Trump again imposed unjustified tariffs on out nation, in violation of our existing trade agreements,” Carney told reporters, noting that Trump’s 25% tariffs on cars and car parts would impact more than “500,000 hardworking, dedicated Canadians”.

“With time it will become apparent that these actions will end up hurting American workers,” Carney said.

He announced that Canada will wait until next week, when the auto tariffs are set to take effect, to respond, but said nothing is off the table regarding possible countermeasures.

Carney said that he would speak to provincial premiers and business leaders on Friday to discuss a coordinated response.

“It doesn’t make sense when there’s a series of US initiatives that are going to come in relatively rapid succession, to respond to each of them. We’re going to know a lot more in a week, and we will respond then,” he said.

One option for Canada is to impose excise duties on exports of oil, potash and other commodities.

“Nothing is off the table to defend our workers and our country,” said Carney, who added that the old economic and security relationship between Canada and the United States was over.

Rubio says he has already revoked hundreds of visas from student protesters

US secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke to reporters in Guyana on Thursday.

“I don’t care what movement you’re involved in”, Rubio added, “if we’ve given you a visa and you decided to do that, we’re going to take it away. I encourage every country to do that.

“If you come into the US as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country,” Rubio added.

Trump withdraws Elise Stefanik’s nomination as UN ambassador

Donald Trump has withdrawn his nomination of his staunch supporter and New York representative Elise Stefanik as the US ambassador to the UN.

Citing the necessity to “maintain every Republican seat in Congress”, Trump took to Truth Social to explain his decision on Thursday, saying:

“As we advance our America First Agenda, it is essential that we maintain EVERY Republican Seat in Congress. We must be unified to accomplish our Mission, and Elise Stefanik has been a vital part of our efforts from the very beginning. I have asked Elise, as one of my biggest Allies, to remain in Congress… With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat. The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day.”

Trump went on to say that “there are others that can do a good job at the United Nations”.

Elise Stefanik joins Trump during a campaign rally on 19 January 2024 in Concord, New Hampshire. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Lisa O’Carroll

Ireland is bracing itself for targeted tarrifs in addition to those threatened against the European Union, after Donald Trump again singled out the US pharmaceutical sector in the country.

But business chiefs have warned that the uncertainty and Trump’s policy by press release and cycle of threat and cancellation of threat is going to see the US punished by investors and particularly bond holders.

“He is really putting the United States at risk primarily, and then by a knock on consequence the rest of the world,” said Danny McCoy, chief executive of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation.

He told RTE that while Trump may be trying to lure pharmaceutical giants back from Ireland and force the EU to buy more American cars through tariffs, the uncertainty was increasing the risk of investing in the US, something that would be translated into potential downgrading of its credit rating.

“The checks and balances that the United States have, even from their judiciary or from Congress just seem to be bypassed right now, and that’s not a good place for business … But I think [it is] outside, where he will get disciplined, in time, through the bond markets,” he said.

Trump claimed Ireland had stolen the US pharmaceutical sector when he met the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, earlier this month in the Oval Office. On Wednesday night, the US president returned to his threat to impose tariffs on medicines coming from Ireland.

“We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharma, in order to bring our pharma back, …. its in other countries, largely made in china, a lot of made it in Ireland. Ireland very smart, we love Ireland, but we’ll have that,” Trump said.

Ireland cannot retaliate but along with the EU it is hoping that in the weeks after his annoucenment and the introduction of counter tariffs in Europe a space will be created for negotiation.

Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Harris, said on Thursday the EU wanted to “sit down with the US and reach agreement on a trade relationship that works for everyone because trade is good for jobs, growth and all our economies”.

He will attend an emergency meeting of EU trade ministers on 7 April where tariffs will be central.

Joseph Gedeon

The Trump administration has terminated 69 international programs aimed at combating child labor, forced labor and human trafficking, potentially undermining decades of progress in protecting vulnerable workers globally.

The Washington Post obtained an email detailing how the US Department of Labor’s bureau of international labor affairs (ILAB) will immediately end grants totaling more than $500m that supported labor standard enforcement across 40 countries, including critical initiatives in Mexico, Central America, south-east Asia and Africa.

John Clark, a Trump-appointed official, in the email justified the cuts by citing a “lack of alignment with agency priorities and national interest”.

The department’s spokesperson, Courtney Parella, echoed this sentiment, telling the Post that the administration wants to prioritize “investments in the American workforce”.

Full story:

Martin Pengelly

The Associated Press isn’t Donald Trump’s favorite news outlet, largely because it won’t play ball over his attempt to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Chances are his staff won’t be printing out and presenting its new story about an analysis of the likely effects of Trump’s tariffs policy on cities across America.

According to the AP, “The US cities most vulnerable to a trade war with Canada turn out to largely be in the states that helped return Donald Trump to the White House – a sign of the possible political risk he’s taking with his tariff plans.

A new analysis released Thursday by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce detailed the areas most dependent on exports to Canada, with San Antonio and Detroit topping the list of 41 US metro areas. The findings show that the United States’ 25% tariffs on Canada and Canada’s retaliations could inflict meaningful damage in key states for US politics.

“The analysis was conducted before the Republican president announced Wednesday that he was placing additional 25% tariffs on imported autos and parts starting on 3 April.

Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, tells the AP: “The consequences of today’s escalation in this destructive tariff war will not be contained to Canada, as much as the US administration would like to pretend.

“Throwing away tens of thousands of jobs on both sides of the border will mean giving up North America’s auto leadership role, instead encouraging companies to build and hire anywhere else but here. This tax hike puts plants and workers at risk for generations, if not forever.”