State Dept revokes over 6,000 student visas over assault, support of terrorism, overstays

The State Department under Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pulled over 6,000 student visas over criminal activity, support of terrorism, as well as overstaying their visas. This comes as the Trump administration has been taking steps to tighten the visa vetting process.

The roughly 6,000 visas were pulled primarily over overstaying the limit on the visa and criminal activity, according to a report from Fox News. Those who have also attended pro-Palestinian protests have faced heightened scrutiny in the process.

"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 State Department official told 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 "About 4,000 visas alone have been revoked because these visitors broke the law while visiting our country, including records of assault and DUIs."

There were around 800 students who had their visas pulled due to assault charges or arrests stemming from assault, the official added. Between 200 and 300 people had their visas pulled over support for terrorism, such as raising money for the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.

Around 40,000 visas have been revoked in 2025, and in that same time frame, there were only 16,000 that were pulled under the Biden administration.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."

"I don't know the latest count, but we probably have more to do," Rubio said to the Senate appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign affairs earlier this year. He said at the time that there were likely thousands of student visas that needed to be revoked. "We're going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities."