A number of students in the U.S., including Indian citizens, have had their visas revoked. File.
| Photo Credit: AP
Reacting to news reports that “hundreds” of Indian citizens in the U.S. had received visa revocation emails for campus activism and been told to “self deport” towards the end of last week, the U.S. State Department said it routinely invoked its authority to revoke visas when information came to light suggesting a visa holder had become ineligible to continue holding the visa.
The State Department declined to confirm the specific news reports, citing privacy reasons. It also could not confirm the number of revocations as the process was ongoing.
“The Department generally does not provide statistics on visa revocations,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hindu over the weekend, in response to a set of questions sent to them via email.
A number of students in the U.S., including Indian citizens, have had their visas revoked. Some have been detained after the U.S. government had accused them of participating in pro-Palestine campus protests or for having sympathies with – and, in some cases, links to – militant group Hamas.
“Every prospective traveler to the United States undergoes extensive interagency security vetting. All visa applicants, no matter the visa type and where they are located, are continuously vetted,” the spokesperson said.
Security vetting runs from the time an application is made all the way through the validity of the visa to ensure eligibility to travel to the U.S., they said, adding that the State Department invokes its authority to revoke visas when “information comes to light indicating that a visa holder may be no longer be eligible for a visa”.
The spokesperson also referred to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments on the issue.
On Friday, Mr Rubio was asked about the visa consequences in a hypothetical case of a student who came to the U.S. to study without a plan to protest but over the course of their time in the U.S. developed views at odds with U.S. foreign policy and protested or wrote about it.
The Secretary suggested that there was a threshold and that visas were not going to be revoked if someone complained about “paper straws” for instance.
“…You start protesting or complaining about paper straws – I mean, we’re obviously not going to yank a visa over that,” he said.
“…We have seen on campuses across the country where students literally cannot go to school… buildings are being taken over, activities going on – this is clearly an organized movement. And if you are in this country on a student visa and are a participant in those movements, we have a right to deny your visa,” he added.
Nobody had a right to a visa, Mr Rubio said, adding that the U.S. denied visas on a daily basis across the world, for many reasons.
Two Indian citizens, Ranjini Srinivasan and Badar Khan Suri recently had their visas revoked over have been named for having their visas revoked in connection on grounds
Published – March 31, 2025 07:12 pm IST
