NEW YORK—According to news reports and a public announcement by the State Department, the Trump administration has revoked the visas of at least six people who publicly commented on the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on social media. The revocations followed earlier warnings from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that visa holders “celebrating” Kirk’s death should “prepare to be deported.”

The following can be attributed to Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney and legislative advisor at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University:

“These kinds of visa revocations are censorship, plain and simple. Mere ‘mockery’ can’t be grounds for adverse government action—whether revocation of broadcast licenses or revocation of visas. While the government can revoke visas for many reasons, the First Amendment forbids it from doing so based on viewpoint.”

Last month, in a case brought by the Knight Institute, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts concluded in AAUP v. Rubio that the Trump administration’s policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students and faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the First Amendment. In response to the question “whether non-citizens lawfully present” in the United States “actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us,” the court answered “unequivocally ‘yes, they do.’” Read more about that case here. 

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, [email protected].