The State Department on Tuesday announced that it had revoked the visas of several foreign nationals who had celebrated or justified the assassination of Presidential Medal of Freedom laureate Charlie Kirk.
“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans,” the agency wrote on the social media platform X.
“The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk,” the department added.
It then listed several instances of the rhetoric that earned the foreign nationals a one-way trip out of the United States.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., praised the moves by the Trump administration in a comment to The Daily Signal.
“An American visa is a privilege. It is neither a right, nor an entitlement. For far too long, far too many have treated it as an entitlement,” he said.
“I’m glad to see the Trump administration taking action to end the visa privileges of individuals who have no business being in our country,” the Missouri lawmaker added.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who serves on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, concurred.
“The United States of America is under no obligation to play host to foreign nationals who hate our values and revel in political violence,” Lee told The Daily Signal, adding:
The State Department is correct to pull the visas of anyone celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk and promoting hatred. A visa is a privilege, not a right.
One example that the State Department acted on was a social media post from a German foreign national who claimed, “when fascists die, democrats don’t complain.”
Another response, this one from a Paraguayan national, described Kirk—the founder of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, who was killed on Sept. 10—as a “son of a b****” who “died by his own rules.”
In a statement to The Daily Signal, State Department principal deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott noted that the rules governing the public remarks of foreign nationals living in the United States differs from the free speech protections guaranteed to American citizens.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that aliens do not have the same First Amendment rights as American citizens,” Pigott told The Daily Signal in a statement.
“The United States is under no obligation [emphasis in original] to allow foreign aliens to come to our country, commit acts of anti-American, pro-terrorist, and antisemitic hate, or incite violence. We will continue to revoke the visas of those who put the safety of our citizens at risk,” he said.
The move is the latest effort by the Trump administration to enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act, which empowers the State Department to remove any alien in America who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.”
In a document published on Substack in April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out his intentions in administering the policy.
“Whenever the government catches non-U.S. citizens breaking our laws, we will take action to revoke their status. The time of contemptuously taking advantage of our nation’s generosity ends,” Rubio said.
Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, agreed.
“Foreign nationals are granted U.S. visas under the highest standards, and that privilege ends the moment they promote violence or spew terroristic views against Americans,” Weber said.
“If you wish death on an American, you don’t belong in America. I commend Secretary Rubio for keeping his word and revoking those visas, just as he promised back in September,” he said.
