Marco Rubio Fails to Answer Simple Question on Tufts Student’s Arrest

At a press conference Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to give a specific justification for the arrest and detention of Rumeysa Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, by masked immigration authorities on Tuesday.

“A year ago [Ozturk] wrote an opinion piece about the Gaza war. Could you help us understand what the specific action she took led to her visa being revoked?” A reporter asked, referring to Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar from Turkey, co-authoring a column for her university’s student newspaper.

Rubio responded with a long-winded answer attacking vandalism and rioting but failing to say exactly what Ozturk was responsible for that resulted in her F-1 student visa being revoked and masked, plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcements brazenly arresting her on a public street.

“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just ’cause you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said.

“If you come into the U.S. as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country,” added Rubio.

Rubio noted during the press conference that he has personally revoked dozens of visas, possibly “more than 300 at this point.”

“We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” Rubio said.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Guardian that “DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” but did not offer any specifics either.

In a move reminiscent of ICE’s arrest and detention of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, Ozturk was sent to a detention center in Louisiana without speaking with a lawyer and despite a court order. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani, who initially ordered that Ozturk not be removed from Massachusetts, issued a new order Thursday requiring the government to justify Ozturk’s detention by Friday.

If Rubio’s words are correct, there are possibly hundreds of visitors in the United States who have had their visas revoked for pro-Palestine speech or activism, or any political speech and activism for that matter, without any due process. They may not even know that their visa status has been revoked. They could be disappeared off the street just like Khalil, Ozturk, or University of Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi, who has yet to be connected to any kind of political activism and whose whereabouts are unknown.

There have been plenty of fires blazing in the background as Signalgate dominates the airwaves this week.

Here are four stories you may have missed amid the fallout of that war plans group chat:

1. The Trump administration continues to disappear pro-Palestinian college students with no other justification. On Tuesday, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar from Turkey, was abducted in broad daylight by masked ICE agents and later transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana. Ozturk had previously co-authored an op-ed for her student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later refused to explain why she was arrested or had her visa revoked.

2. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to fire 10,000 employees in a wave of massive DOGE-induced cuts. According to The Wall Street Journal, the cuts will include:

• 3,500 full-time employees from the Food and Drug Administration—or about 19% of the agency’s workforce.
• 2,400 employees from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—or about 18% of its workforce.
• 1,200 employees from the National Institutes of Health—or about 6% of its workforce.
• 300 employees from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—or about 4% of its workforce.

“We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said.

3. Trump withdrew Representative Elise Stefanik’s nomination for U.N. ambassador to help the Republicans maintain their tiny House majority. Stefanik—one of MAGA’s favorite congressional attack dogs—is likely to return to defend her New York district seat, which Democrats view as vulnerable.

4. Hamdan Ballal, the Palestinian Oscar-winning director of No Other Land, was blindfolded and brutally beaten by Israel Defense Force soldiers after they detained him for allegedly “hurling rocks” as Israeli settlers attempted to kill him on Monday night. Ballal recounted that he heard the IDF guards mention the word “Oscar” while beating him. “I realized they were attacking me specifically,” he said after being released to a hospital in the West Bank. “When they say ‘Oscar,’ you understand. When they say your name, you understand.”

U.S. auto stocks opened down on Thursday after Donald Trump announced “permanent” 25 percent tariffs on “all cars that are not made in the United States.”

The Big Three automakers took an immediate hit as the market digested the announcement, with tariffs on vehicles expected to go into effect on April 3 and vehicle parts one month later.

General Motors stock fell more than 7 percent in morning trading on Thursday, and continued to fall to roughly 9 percent down.

Deutsche Bank analysts noted that General Motors is likely to be hit the hardest by Trump’s announcement because it has “the most exposure to Mexico.”

A little over half of General Motors vehicles sold in the U.S. during the first three quarters of 2024 were assembled in the U.S., according to Barclays analyst Dan Levy. Thirty percent were assembled in Canada and Mexico, and 18 percent were brought in from other countries.

While a lot of General Motors cars are assembled in the U.S., they rely heavily on imported parts.

Ford saw a smaller dip, losing only 2 percent in trading. “Tesla and Ford appear to be the most shielded given location of vehicle assembly facilities although Ford does face incremental exposure on imported engines,” wrote the Deutsche Bank analysts. Seventy-eight percent of Ford vehicles are assembled in the U.S., while only 21 percent of U.S.-sold units are assembled in Mexico or Canada.

Stellantis, which assembles roughly 57 percent of its vehicles in the U.S., lost less than 2 percent in morning trading.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Tesla saw a bump of 5 percent in morning trading, after Trump’s last round of tariff announcements and reference to a seemingly imminent economic recession sent the stock cratering earlier this month.

Trump told reporters Wednesday that tariffs, which have already started to tank the valuations of the Big Three automakers, would “continue to spur growth.”

Trump’s tariffs on vehicles and auto parts is the latest move in his escalating trade war with both Mexico and Canada, which is very likely to have dire and long-lasting economic impacts on America’s border states.

Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers union, applauded Trump’s move, saying that the new tariffs were a step to “end the free trade disaster that has devastated working-class communities for decades.” In a separate statement, the union expressed optimism that Trump’s announcement could help bring back automanufacturing jobs to the states.

Representative Elise Stefanik will have to take a step back from her ambassadorial nomination in order to cushion Republicans’ narrow majority in the House.

The White House on Thursday yanked Stefanik’s nomination to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

House Speaker Mike Johnson was aware of some of the discussions taking place earlier in the day to keep Stefanik in the lower chamber, according to CBS News. His caucus can currently only afford to lose six votes on any given issue, assuming that all Republicans are present. The House currently has four vacancies, with a five-seat Republican majority.

Donald Trump confirmed the news Thursday in a post on Truth Social. “I have asked Elise, as one of my biggest Allies, to remain in Congress to help me deliver Historic Tax Cuts, GREAT Jobs, Record Economic Growth, a Secure Border, Energy Dominance, Peace Through Strength, and much more, so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” he wrote.

“With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat,” he said. “Therefore, Elise will stay in Congress, rejoin the House Leadership Team, and continue to fight for our amazing American People.”

Except, there are currently no open House leadership positions. Stefanik previously served as the Republican conference chair, but that role went to Representative Lisa McClain after Trump initially announced Stefanik’s nomination for U.N. ambassador.

Stefanik was present at Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting at the White House in February.

The New York Republican has been one of Trump’s most ardent allies. She was, at one time, weighed as one of the top contenders to be his vice president, especially after she admitted in February 2024 that she would have put party before country and refused to certify the 2020 presidential election results if she had been in former Vice President Mike Pence’s shoes.

But having Stefanik, a longtime critic of the United Nations, act as the nation’s liaison to the global organization would not have been good for the country’s diplomacy, especially as America’s Western allies begin to turn away from potential trade and military arrangements due to Trump’s tariff war.

Stefanik called for a “complete reassessment of U.S. funding of the United Nations” after the Palestinian Authority attempted in October to expel Israel from the organization for alleged war crimes and human rights abuses.

She won reelection in New York’s 21st congressional district in November while campaigning as a staunch defender of Israel in its war on Gaza, including protecting Israel’s decisions to eliminate humanitarian aid from the region. At the time of her first win in 2014, Stefanik was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

She’s since made a name for herself in Trumpworld for her impassioned defenses of the real estate mogul during his first impeachment trial in 2019. The following year, she refused to certify the 2020 election results, elevating lies that Joe Biden had stolen the race.

Pulling her nomination comes as Republicans worry about their ability to hold onto their already razor-thin majority. Democrats believed that there was a chance they could have flipped Stefanik’s district after her scheduled confirmation hearing on April 2. After all, New York’s 21st congressional district is less conservative than other regions of the country where the GOP is also “anxious” about maintaining a stronghold, such as Florida’s 6th congressional district seat, which has been vacant since Mike Waltz became the administration’s bumbling national security adviser.

This story has been updated.

The Trump administration has detained another international student, but this time has not provided any justification.

University of Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian citizen, was picked up at his home on 5 a.m. Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. A university spokesperson said that Doroudi was detained off campus, but ICE didn’t respond to reporters at The Guardian or The New York Times.

The university’s student newspaper, The Crimson White, reports that Doroudi was in the United States on an F-1 student visa, awarded in January 2023, and had cleared immigration checks. He reportedly received a message that his student visa was revoked six months later and then contacted University of Alabama’s office of International Student and Scholar Services.

“ISSS replied with confidence, stating that his case was not unusual or problematic and that he could remain in the U.S. legally as long as he maintained his student status,” read a message in a group chat that includes Iranian students, according to the campus newspaper. On ICE’s website, Doroudi is listed as being “in ICE Custody,” but the “Current Detention Facility” field is conspicuously left blank.

Doroudi’s detention came the same day as another international student, Rumeysa Ozturk of Tufts University, was detained by ICE in a brazen arrest, captured on video, by plainclothes immigration agents wearing masks, after which she was transferred to a detention center in Louisiana. In that case, Ozturk’s arrest appears to be due to her pro-Palestinian activism, specifically her co-authoring of an op-ed in the university’s student newspaper.

Several international students have been detained by the Trump administration in the past month due to their support for Palestine, most notably Mahmoud Khalil of Columbia University. All are assaults on free speech and are blatant violations of immigration law.