“I will issue clear orders to my Attorney General to aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews.”

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is launching an AI-fueled “Catch and Revoke” effort to cancel the visas of foreign nationals who appear to support Hamas or other designated terror groups, senior State Department officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The effort — which includes AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts — marks a dramatic escalation in the U.S. government’s policing of foreign nationals’ conduct and speech.

• The reviews of social media accounts are particularly looking for evidence of alleged terrorist sympathies expressed after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, officials say.

Officials plan to examine internal databases to see whether any visa holders were arrested but allowed to stay in the country during the Biden administration.

• They say they’re also checking news reports of anti-Israel demonstrations and Jewish students’ lawsuits that highlight foreign nationals allegedly engaged in antisemitic activity without consequence.
• The State Department is working with the departments of Justice and Homeland Security in what one senior State official called a “whole of government and whole of authority approach.”

Zoom in: To launch “Catch and Revoke,” federal officials examined 100,000 people in the Student Exchange Visitor System since October 2023 to see if any visas had been revoked because the student been arrested or suspended from school.

Scoop: State Dept. to use AI to revoke visas of foreign students who appear “pro-Hamas” by Marc Caputo, AXIOS, March 6, 2025

The annual event, put on by Students for Justice in Palestine, is usually a big draw, but this year, more than a few students were nervous about showing up.

“I was scared that I would get photographed or something, and that would cause a problem,” said one foreign student in the U.S. who asked that her name not be used for fear of jeopardizing her visa. “My dad knows that I am very pro-Palestine, and he was like, be very careful, like you don’t want to take any risks.”

…

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice,” Trump said. “We will find you, and we will deport you.”

Abed Ayoub, head of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, says the threat is getting real. He says the ADC has heard from at least a dozen students who left the U.S. for winter break and were unable to return because their visas were canceled — with no explanation given.

“Two of them have no involvement at all with student activism on campus. They just happened to be from Gaza,” Ayoub says. “This should be a concern of all Americans because this opens the door to really criminalizing any speech and any expression in the nation.”

Foreign students say the threat of Trump’s executive orders is getting real by Tovia Smith, NPR, March 3, 2025

COMBATING ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE UNITED STATES: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to Combat Anti-Semitism.

• Expanding on his Executive Order 13899, President Trump’s new Order takes forceful and unprecedented steps to marshal all Federal resources to combat the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and in our streets since October 7, 2023.
• Every Federal executive department and agency leader will review and report to the White House within sixty days on all criminal and civil authorities and actions available for fighting anti-Semitism.
• Immediate action will be taken by the Department of Justice to protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.
• The Order demands the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws.

GOING ON OFFENSE TO ENFORCE LAW AND ORDER AND TO PROTECT CIVIL RIGHTS: Immediately after the jihadist terrorist attacks against the people of Israel on October 7, 2023, pro-Hamas aliens and left-wing radicals began a campaign of intimidation, vandalism, and violence on the campuses and streets of America.

• Celebrating Hamas’ mass rape, kidnapping, and murder, they physically blocked Jewish Americans from attending college classes, obstructed synagogues and assaulted worshippers, and vandalized American monuments and statues.
• The Biden Administration turned a blind eye to this coordinated assault on public order; it simply refused to protect the civil rights of Jewish Americans, especially students. According to a December 2024 U.S. House of Representatives Staff Report on anti-Semitism, “the failure of our federal government departments and agencies is astounding.”

PRESIDENT TRUMP KEEPS HIS PROMISES AND BUILDS ON HIS SUCCESS: In his first term, President Trump kept his biggest promises:

• He moved the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem: After decades of broken promises and despite much criticism, President Trump was the President who finally kept his commitment to Israel to move the American embassy from Tel-Aviv to Israel’s true and rightful capital: Jerusalem.
• He established the Abraham Accords: President Trump delivered the greatest breakthrough for peace in the Middle East in decades by brokering the normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, protecting Israel and Jews and spreading security and prosperity to the entire region.

Now, President Trump has promised that the Federal Government will:

• Protect the civil rights of our Jewish citizens: “My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”
• Aggressively enforce the law, protect public order, and prosecute anti-Semitic crimes: “I will issue clear orders to my Attorney General to aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews.”
• Deport Hamas Sympathizers and Revoke Student Visas: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”