Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is leading a resolution Tuesday to deport foreigners and cancel their visas if they support the Islamic militant group Hamas.<\/p>\n
Rubio\u2019s office told Fox News Digital he would be hotlining the resolution \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
According to the resolution text, it requests that the president \u2018revoke visas and initiate deportation proceedings for any foreign national who has endorsed or espoused the terrorist activities of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah,\u2019 or other terrorist groups in the attacks against Israel last week.<\/p>\n
The resolution also states that Hamas \u2018terrorists 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.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Citing a former Hamas leader\u2019s call for a \u2018Day of Rage\u2019 on Oct. 13, the resolution said some in the U.S. responded to this call and \u2018incited others\u2019 to endorse Hamas. \u2018Antisemitic\u2019 protests and riots in South Florida, Washington, D.C., New York City, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, were also cited.<\/p>\n
\u2018America 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 \u2018intifada\u2019 to enter or stay in our country,\u2019 Rubio said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 \u2018Israeli regime\u2019 was \u2018entirely responsible\u2019 for the \u2018unfolding violence\u2019 in Israel.<\/p>\n
The Harvard student organizations\u2019 statement, released on the day of the Hamas attacks, also said the events did not occur \u2018in a vacuum.\u2019<\/p>\n
A pro-Palestinian chapter at the University of California, Berkeley also said they \u2018invariably reject Israel\u2019s framing as a victim.\u2019<\/p>\n
Rubio\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 \u2018no place\u2019 in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u2018I write to urge you to immediately deport any foreign national \u2014 including and especially any alien on a student visa \u2014 that has expressed support for Hamas and its murderous attacks on Israel. These fifth-columnists have no place in the United States,\u2019 Cotton wrote.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u2018They should never have been allowed in,\u2019 Rubio said on Fox News on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018We probably didn\u2019t know that about them. No one\u2019s going to tell you, \u2018I\u2019m a Hamas supporter,\u2019 on the way in. But once we know you are, our laws say you shouldn\u2019t have a visa, and you need to go. \u2026 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,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Fox News\u2019 Landon Mion contributed to this report.<\/p>\n