Rubio's State Department yanks more than 6K student visas due to assault, burglary, support for terrorism

EXCLUSIVE: The State Department has yanked more than 6,000 student visas in 2025 for overstays and law violations - including support for terrorism, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The Trump administration has launched multiple initiatives aimed at cracking down on immigration and revoking visas of those attending academic institutions in the U.S. 

Those who've participated in pro-Palestinian protests have faced heightened scrutiny, as one example, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that the administration was reviewing the visa status of those students. 

The roughly 6,000 visas that were pulled were primarily due to visa overstays or encounters with the law, including assault, DUIs, burglary and support for terrorism, the State Department told Fox News Digital. 

"Every single student visa revoked under the Trump Administration has happened because the individual has either broken the law or expressed support for terrorism while in the United States," a senior State Department official said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "About 4,000 visas alone have been revoked because these visitors broke the law while visiting our country, including records of assault and DUIs." 

STATE DEPARTMENT TO RAMP UP SCREENING, SOCIAL MEDIA VETTING FOR STUDENT VISA APPLICANTS AS INTERVIEWS PAUSED

Those who had their student visas yanked due to assault - roughly 800 students - either faced arrest or charges stemming from assault, according to the State Department official. 

Those whose visas were pulled due to support for terrorism - between 200 people to 300 people - engaged in behavior such as raising funds for the militant group Hamas, which the U.S. State Department has designated as a terrorist organization, the official said. 

Altogether, the State Department told Fox News Digital that approximately 40,000 visas have been pulled in 2025, in comparison to the 16,000 that were revoked during the same time frame under the Biden administration. 

"Even if the previous administration was doing less, they were still revoking visas," the State Department official said. "It's not something that just started on January 20 … So this has happened for years." 

Rubio told lawmakers in May that he estimated "thousands" of student visas had been rescinded since January. 

"I don't know the latest count, but we probably have more to do," Rubio told lawmakers on the Senate appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign affairs May 20. "We're going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities."

However, Democrats have pushed back on the Trump administration's effort to revoke visas, asserting it is a violation of due process.

"I do think it's a fundamental attack on freedom, because due process is the guardian of the gate to keep a government from taking away people's life or liberty, and liberty is what happens when you take away a visa without due process," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told Rubio May 20.

RUBIO SPEARHEADS MASSIVE STATE DEPT REORGANIZATION SET TO ELIMINATE, MERGE MORE THAN 300 OFFICES

A student visa permits those outside the U.S. to study in the country for a set amount of time at an academic institution. It's different from a green card, which allows an individual already in the U.S. who is not an American citizen to remain in the country.

The crackdown on student visas aligns with several executive orders President Donald Trump signed in January, aimed at safeguarding the U.S. from foreign terrorists and other national security threats, along with combating antisemitism. 

RUBIO OVERHAULING 'BLOATED' STATE DEPARTMENT IN SWEEPING REFORM

One of the executive orders instructed the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security, attorney general and director of national intelligence, to "vet and screen to the maximum degree possible all aliens who intend to be admitted, enter, or are already inside the United States, particularly those aliens coming from regions or nations with identified security risks." 

A separate executive order Trump signed ordered the U.S. to use "all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence."