The State Division stated Tuesday it has revoked the visas of six folks for making incendiary social media feedback concerning the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The six folks — none of whom had been named — hailed from Argentina, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Germany and Paraguay, the division stated in a sequence of X posts. A few of them made feedback that instructed Kirk deserved to be killed.
“The USA has no obligation to host foreigners who want demise on Individuals,” the State Division wrote on X. “The State Division continues to establish visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.”
The State Division didn’t specify whether or not any of the persons are at present within the U.S. or what forms of visas they held. CBS Information has reached out to the division for additional data.
A day after Kirk was killed on a Utah faculty campus, a high State Division official vowed to take “applicable motion” towards any visa-holders who reward or make gentle of Kirk’s demise — and invited folks to ship in any regarding posts that they see.
Days later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated, “visa revocations are below means.”
Kirk was shot and killed on Sept. 10 whereas chatting with college students at Utah Valley College for an occasion placed on by Turning Level USA, a bunch he co-founded. Authorities stated the gunman shot Kirk utilizing a rifle from the roof of a close-by campus constructing.
Following a two-day manhunt, a 22-year-old Utah man recognized as Tyler Robinson was arrested within the killing. State prosecutors have charged Robinson with aggravated homicide.
The revocations are a part of a wider crackdown on feedback that mock or rejoice Kirk’s demise. The Pentagon and the Secret Service have sidelined service members or brokers who wrote unfavorable social media posts about Kirk, and Vice President JD Vance has inspired folks to name the employers of anyone who celebrates Kirk’s killing.
The Trump administration has sought to revoke visas in different circumstances, too. It’s pushing to deport a number of worldwide college students who’re linked to campus protests towards Israel’s warfare within the Gaza Strip, accusing them of antisemitic rhetoric — which the scholars have denied. And it revoked Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s visa final month for encouraging U.S. troops to disobey President Trump’s orders throughout a protest in New York.
The federal government’s authorized energy to disclaim or revoke visas on speech grounds is an unresolved query, Eugene Volokh, a UCLA professor emeritus of legislation who has written extensively concerning the First Modification, advised CBS Information final month. The Supreme Courtroom has dominated that the federal government has broad latitude to refuse to confess folks into the nation, however whether or not federal officers can deport people who find themselves already within the U.S. on account of their speech is much less clear.
Volokh stated noncitizens “have the identical First Modification protections towards, say, felony punishment or civil legal responsibility as residents do.”
“However with regards to the query of deportation or exclusion from the nation within the first place, the principles grow to be unsettled,” he stated.
