The White House confirmed Tuesday that the Trump administration invoked a little-known provision of federal immigration law to arrest pro-Palestinian protester Mahmoud Khalil. The move grants Secretary of State Marco Rubio broad authority to declare individuals “deportable.” And, predictably, the radical left is furious.
On Wednesday, a reporter thought he had cornered Rubio with a question, and ended up getting destroyed as a result.
“President Trump appealed to a lot of Americans during his campaign on free speech arguments and not suppressing speech, especially from the government,” the reporter began. “But your revocation of the green card, to many is seen as one of the most anti-speech actions a secretary could take with his powers. How do you respond to that?”
“This is an important point, and I’m glad you asked this question,” Rubio said before dismantling the premise entirely. He made it crystal clear that visas and green cards are privileges, not rights. “When you come to the United States as a visitor, which is what a visa is… you are here as a visitor. We can deny you that visa.”
Rubio illustrated his point by offering an obvious example: “If you tell us when you apply, ‘Hi, I’m trying to get into the United States on a student visa. I am a big supporter of Hamas, a murderous, barbaric group that kidnaps children, that rapes teenage girls, that takes hostages, that allows them to die in captivity, that returns more bodies than live hostages’… If you told us all these things when you applied for a visa, we would deny your visa. I hope we would.”
Rubio continued, “If you actually end up doing that once you’re in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it. And if you end up having a green card, not citizenship, but a green card… we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that.”
As for the free speech argument, Rubio shut it down completely.
“This is not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way.”
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Rubio then turned the focus to the chaos caused by radical activists on American campuses, where students are afraid to attend class because of intimidation and violence. “There are kids at these schools that can’t go to class. You pay all this money to these high-priced schools that are supposed to be of great esteem, and you can’t even go to class. You’re afraid to go to class because these lunatics are running around with covers on their face, screaming terrifying things.”
The bottom line, according to Rubio, is simple: “If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in. And if you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out.”
“This isn’t about free speech. Nobody has a RIGHT to a Student Visa. Nobody has a RIGHT to a green card!”
Rubio absolutely FLAMES a reporter trying to corner him on Mahmoud Khalil’s green card being REVOKED!pic.twitter.com/pGmA4J0mJg
— Rob Smith (@robsmithonline) March 12, 2025
Imagine having the audacity to declare that people have the right to come to the United States if they support Hamas and threaten Jewish students on college campuses.
That’s today’s Democratic Party.
