Secretary of State Marco Rubio is getting widespread acclaim from conservative commentators after a fiery exchange he had with left-wing Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) during a House hearing this week. Jayapal challenged Rubio about his targeted revocations of student visas, to which he sharply replied that they were done “proudly” and that “we’re going to do more of them.” 

“We are going to revoke the visa of anyone who’s in the country as a guest who’s here to stir up trouble,” the secretary concluded. “I’m looking to get crazy people out of our country.”

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Cue the chorus of right-wing cheers.

Republicans should be very, very careful about the precedent they’re establishing. They should ask themselves whether the extent of Rubio’s efforts is remotely compatible with their party’s claimed values of free speech and open debate. 

To be clear, foreign college students who participated in illegal “encampments” on campus and committed crimes such as property destruction or trespassing can and should have their visas revoked. So, too, the State Department would be entirely justified in expelling students who have committed a crime by providing material support to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. But the Trump administration has gone far, far beyond that, revoking thousands of visas, having students arrested, and turning people’s lives upside down in cases where all they did was express an anti-Israel opinion. 

Consider the case of Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, whom Jayapal was asking Rubio about in the clip that went viral. She did not occupy any buildings. She did not participate in any encampments. She did not provide any material support for Hamas. Her only known “offense” is authoring an op-ed in her campus newspaper that criticized Israel’s war in Gaza and called for her school to divest from the country. Whether one agrees with this perspective or not, it’s disturbing that she was apprehended on the street, thrown into a van, and detained for weeks over nothing more than a ThoughtCrime. 

Thankfully, Ozturk was finally released after a federal judge demanded that the Trump administration produce evidence justifying her detention beyond the op-ed, and they failed to do so. However, the administration is still pursuing the cancellation of her visa and others like her. Their justification?

Well, Rubio claims they have the power to revoke the visa of anyone whose speech runs “counter to our national interest, to our foreign policy.” And Rubio may be right as a matter of law: there are federal statutes that give the Secretary of State broad latitude to revoke visas. (Although some First Amendment lawyers are currently suing and arguing that these old statutes are unconstitutional and should be struck down.)

But even if the legality of these moves is eventually upheld, just because the Trump administration can do something doesn’t mean it should. 

The idea that some op-ed in a campus newspaper meaningfully undermines U.S. foreign policy is itself laughable. The Trump administration’s ability to provide continued support for Israel is in no way affected by an article published in the Tufts Daily. 

So, by suggesting the United States somehow needs to be “protected” from the opinions of random college students, the Trump administration is buying into the same absurd logic behind the “safe space” mentality Republicans have long rightfully ridiculed. It also has a clear chilling effect on campus debate, creating a two-tiered system where American students are free to speak their minds, but their international peers are suddenly looking over their shoulders and afraid to voice their thoughts. 

What’s more, the Trump administration is setting a precedent that could quickly come back to bite Republicans and conservatives the next time Democrats control the federal government. After all, if anti-Israel students can suddenly have their visas revoked and face arrest for simply expressing their opinion, because that opinion runs contrary to the State Department’s current stance, what if the federal government’s stance changes? Do Republicans really want pro-Israel students summarily deported by an administration controlled by a future President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? 

This could easily extend beyond the Israel-Palestinian debate, too. For example, Jordan Peterson, a Canadian intellectual beloved by conservatives who is not a U.S. citizen, was outspoken in his opposition to U.S. support for Ukraine — but under the Biden administration, supporting Ukraine was the U.S. foreign policy. Imagine that former President Joe Biden had suddenly revoked Peterson’s legal status, had federal agents arrest him on the street and throw him into a van, and tried to send him back to Canada.

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Can anyone seriously argue that Republicans wouldn’t have been outraged? That they wouldn’t have called it an act of Orwellian censorship? Or that they wouldn’t have been right? 

If you actually hold them in earnest, free speech principles must apply regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the underlying opinion. So, the many Republicans suddenly cheering on a federal crackdown on ideas are not just proving themselves hypocrites, but also setting the stage for their own side’s silencing in the not-too-distant future. 

Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.