US asks hundreds of international students to self deport over campus activism

Apart from the international students, several others who liked "anti-national" posts have also received the emails.

The students who have been targeted by the emails may also include a few Indians as well.

The crackdown has been brought on the basis of social media reviews by DOS including Consulate officials.

The email sent to the students read, "On behalf of the United States Department of State, the Bureau of Consular Affairs Visa Office hereby information became available after your visa was issued. As a result, your F-1 visa with expiration date XXXXX was revoked in accordance with Section 221(i) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended."

The students have also been warned that they could be deported at any time and they won't be given the opportunity to secure their possessions.

"Persons being deported may be sent to countries other than their counties of origin," the mail warned as reported by Deccan Herald.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cleared the country will not grant a visa if someone participates in movements that involve vandalising universities, harassing students, creating ruckus other than being a student and writing op-eds.

"If you apply for a student visa to come to the United States and you say you're coming not just to study, but to participate in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings, and cause chaos, we're not giving you that visa," Rubio said.

"Now, once you've lost your visa, you're no longer legally in the United States, and we have a right, like every other country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country. So it's just that simple," he added.

Rubio said the US had revoked 300 foreign students' visas in line with President Donald Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters inside the campus.

"We do it every day, every time I find one of these lunatics," he said as quoted by BBC News.

Earlier this month, Indian researcher Badar Khan Suri was arrested over his alleged link to Palestinian terror group Hamas.

Though he was ordered for deportation, a US judge halted it until and unless the court passes a contrary order.

Khan Suri, a researcher at Georgetown University, was accused of having a close tie with a "known" or "suspected terrorist".