Secretary of State Marco Rubio is shutting down the many Democrats now objecting to his planned deportation of a foreign visitor who organized rallies at a New York university to aid Hamas after its October 7 terror atrocity against Israeli citizens.

“If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in,” Rubio told reporters on May 12. ” And if you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke [your visa] and kick you out.”

“This is not about free speech,” Rubio said, adding:

This is about [foreign] 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. So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason.

The anti-borders progressive wing of the Democratic Party is shielding Hamas supporter Mahmoud Khalil who enrolled in Colombia University and then organized anti-Israel protests amid Israel’s counter-attack on Hamas.

Protestors rally in support of Mahmoud Khalil outside of the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse, where a hearing is underway regarding Khalil’s arrest, in New York, US, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty)

The defense is being amplified by sympathetic media outlets who portray Khalil as a stereotypical student, and who declare his aid for the murderous Hamas terrorist group is justified under free speech.

This radical version of free speech is pushed even though many journalists are also aghast by the GOP’s policy of using biology-based pronouns when referring to people who say they are “transgender.”

A central claim made by Khalil’s defenders is that he has a green card, which is a multi-purpose, long-term visa for foreigners. But a green card is not a citizenship card — although it can be converted into citizenship after several years if the visitor does not break the nation’s laws.

The left-wing uproar leaves Democratic leaders in a political pickle, and they are responding by zig-zagging across the political landscape.

“I abhor many of the opinions and policies that Mahmoud Khalil holds and supports, and have made my criticism of the antisemitic actions at Columbia loudly known,” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared on March 11. He zig-zagged:

I have encouraged [universities] to be much more robust in how they combat antisemitism and maintain a harassment-free campus that protects the safety and security of Jewish and other students …

[But] If the administration cannot prove he has violated any criminal law to justify taking this severe action and is doing it for the opinions he has expressed, then that is wrong

Rubio is not giving Democrats, the activists, and their media allies any space.

On Wednesday, a reporter told him:

President Trump appealed to a lot of Americans during his campaign on free speech arguments and not suppressing speech, especially from the government. Your revocation of the green card to many, is seen as one of the most anti-speech actions a Secretary [of State] could take with his power. How do you respond?

“This is an important point, I’m glad you asked this question,” Rubio responded, then added:

When you come to the United States as a visitor — which is what a visa is [and] which is how this individual entered this country, on a visitors’ visa — you are here as a visitor [not a citizen].

We can deny you that visa [when you first ask for it]. We can deny you that 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 tell us that you are in favor of a group like this, and you tell us when you apply for your visa, “By the way, I intend to become a university student and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, anti-semitic activities. I intend to shut down your universities,” …  we would deny your visa. I hope we would.

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 as a result of that visa while you’re here in those activities, we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that.

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. So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason.

But I think being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down, and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalization, complicit in shutting down learning institutions. There are kids at these schools that can’t go to class. [They]  pay all this money to these high-priced schools that are supposed to be of great esteem [and] can’t go to class. You’re afraid to go to class because these lunatics are running around with covers on their face, screaming terrifying things.

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 and if you do it, once you get in, we’re going to revoke [the visa] and kick you out.

Khalil is also being defended by a large team of elite-backed lawyers, including at least one lawyer who urged foreign people to stay silent about their pro-Hamas views.