Rabia Iclal Turan
21 May 2025•Update: 21 May 2025
WASHINGTON
A fiery exchange erupted Tuesday between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a senator during a Senate hearing on visa policies, as Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen criticized the cancellation of student visas for individuals critical of Israel – specifically citing the case of a Turkish graduate student who was detained for more than six weeks.
“I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for secretary of state" as nominated by US President Donald Trump, Van Hollen said, referring to Rubio’s confirmation by the Senate this January in a 99-0 vote.
Rubio fired back: “Your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job.”
The exchange came as Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the State Department’s proposed 2026 budget.
Van Hollen criticized cuts to US foreign aid as well as the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, including the revocation of visas for students critical of Israel – among them Turkish doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk, whose visa was revoked after she wrote an op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper calling on the university to divest from Israel and recognize the “genocide” of Palestinians.
Rubio defended the decision, saying: “A visa — it is not a right, it is a privilege. If you’re coming to the US to lead campus crusades, to take over libraries, to try to burn down buildings, and (commit) acts of violence, we are not going to give you a visa.”
Van Hollen pushed back, incredulously asking: “Is that what Ms. Ozturk did? Is that what she did? C’mon, Mr. Secretary, you’re just blowing smoke now.”
There is no record that Ozturk incited or committed any acts of violence.
Rubio responded: “The bottom line is if you're here to stir up trouble on our campuses, we will deny you a visa.”
Van Hollen pressed, citing the Constitution’s section on free speech: “Does the First Amendment apply to people living in the United States?”
But Rubio, defiantly, said the administration would continue to act: “We’re going to do more. There are more coming. We're going to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities.”
Van Hollen shot back: “Writing an op-ed for the Tufts (University) newspaper is disrupting the foreign policy of the United States? That’s pathetic, Mr. Secretary.”
“I feel so much safer with you locking up people like Ms. Ozturk,” he added.
Ozturk, 30, a doctoral student at Tufts University in the northeastern state of Massachusetts, this March was snatched from the street by masked federal agents as part of the Trump administration’s controversial crackdown on pro-Palestinian students.
Earlier this month, a federal judge in the US state of Vermont ordered her release on bail, saying that there the government has produced "no evidence" other than her writing an op-ed.
