Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that foreign nationals who made celebratory comments over Charlie Kirk’s assassination will have their U.S. visas revoked, adding that the process is “underway.”
Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 while he was speaking at a campus event. Prosecutors on Tuesday announced charges including capital aggravated murder, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and more against Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah man who was arrested last week.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Rubio confirmed that the State Department will not grant visas to people who celebrated Kirk’s death and said that people who have U.S. visas will have their status revoked.
“We are not in the business of inviting people to visit our country who are going to be involved in negative and destructive, okay,” Rubio told the outlet. “If I invite someone, if we invite someone to visit the United States of America, as a student, as a tourist, as whatever, then the standard they should be held to is very high.”
Some social media users and influencers have made comments celebrating the Turning Point USA founder’s death, and some have been subsequently fired or suspended. Those include university employees, airline pilots, teachers, and doctors.
On Monday, Vice President JD Vance said that people who have made statements celebrating his assassination should be fired from their jobs.
“Call their employer. We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in civility, and there is no civility in the celebration of political assassination,” Vance said as he hosted Kirk’s podcast.
Other Trump administration officials have signaled that the federal government may go after left-wing groups, NGOs, and their funding sources in the wake of Kirk’s death.
“We take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters in May.
