Rubio to introduce Senate resolution canceling visas for Hamas supporters

Rubio’s office told Fox News Digital he would be hotlining the resolution — meaning he will request unanimous consent to pass the resolution without going through the usual formalities of a full debate and vote on the floor.

According to the resolution text, it requests that the president ‘revoke visas and initiate deportation proceedings for any foreign national who has endorsed or espoused the terrorist activities of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah,’ or other terrorist groups in the attacks against Israel last week.

The resolution also states that Hamas ‘terrorists operated death squads tasked with exterminating Jews, as well as hostage-taking squads tasked with abducting Jews for ransom, propaganda, and torture, if not [for] simply sadistic pleasure.’ 

Citing a former Hamas leader’s call for a ‘Day of Rage’ on Oct. 13, the resolution said some in the U.S. responded to this call and ‘incited others’ to endorse Hamas. ‘Antisemitic’ protests and riots in South Florida, Washington, D.C., New York City, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, were also cited.

‘America is the most generous nation on earth, but we cannot allow foreign nationals who support terrorist groups like Hamas and march in our streets calling for ‘intifada’ to enter or stay in our country,’ Rubio said in a statement. 

The resolution comes as universities including Harvard, University of California, Los Angeles, Columbia University and the University of Virginia blamed Israel for the attacks. Harvard alone had 34 student groups write in a letter the ‘Israeli regime’ was ‘entirely responsible’ for the ‘unfolding violence’ in Israel.

The Harvard student organizations’ statement, released on the day of the Hamas attacks, also said the events did not occur ‘in a vacuum.’

A pro-Palestinian chapter at the University of California, Berkeley also said they ‘invariably reject Israel’s framing as a victim.’

Rubio’s resolution follows his letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, in which he first called for visas to be revoked from foreigners who support Hamas. 

In a separate letter sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Monday, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., also demanded the department take immediate action to remove the foreign nationals, who the GOP lawmaker says have ‘no place’ in the U.S.

‘I write to urge you to immediately deport any foreign national — including and especially any alien on a student visa — that has expressed support for Hamas and its murderous attacks on Israel. These fifth-columnists have no place in the United States,’ Cotton wrote.

More than 4,200 people have been killed in Gaza and Israel since Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack against the Jewish State, leading to retaliatory action from Israeli forces. Thousands more have been wounded, and many others have been taken hostage by Hamas and raped, tortured and murdered.

‘They should never have been allowed in,’ Rubio said on Fox News on Sunday. 

‘We probably didn’t know that about them. No one’s going to tell you, ‘I’m a Hamas supporter,’ on the way in. But once we know you are, our laws say you shouldn’t have a visa, and you need to go. … We should not have people inside of our country who are here as visitors, foreign nationals, who then take to the streets and call for supporting this terrorist organization that just butchered babies, slaughtered innocents, and took hostages, including Americans, into Gaza,’ he said.

Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.