Senator Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee said that the U.S. government should cancel the visas of international students who support Hamas and send them back to their countries as protests continue at colleges all over the country.
She mentioned on to the media , “If they’re foreign students and they’re out protesting, shouting ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’ and … being Hamas sympathizers, I would pull their visa and deport them.”
Blackburn also suggested that if these students are from the U.S. and have federal student loans, their loans should be canceled because taxpayer money funds them.
Her comments come after students at Columbia University took control of a university building. They blocked entrances and hung a Palestinian flag from a window at Hamilton Hall. The protests have spread to many other college campuses, with over 1,000 people arrested.
Although many student protesters call for their schools to stop supporting Israel and to seek a cease-fire, some incidents have raised concerns. Columbia University banned a student protest leader who said, “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” Another protest organizer, Khymani James, apologized for saying earlier this year that people should be grateful he doesn’t go around “murdering Zionists.”
Blackburn emphasized that if people openly declare support for Hamas, they should be put on the terrorist watch list and not allowed to fly. She stated, “You cannot sit by and just let this activity continue and have Jewish students put in harm’s way.”
