Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the State Department suspended visitor visas for Gazans because it received “evidence” that some organizations facilitating the visas to the US “have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas,” without providing further details.
The State Department announced in a post on X on Saturday that it would halt all visitor visas for individuals from Gaza as it reviews the process that allows them to temporarily enter the US for medical and humanitarian reasons.
Rubio told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “evidence” had been presented to the Trump administration by “numerous congressional offices” and that the department had received “outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it.”
He did not give details on the evidence or the offices that presented it. Far-right Trump ally Laura Loomer has taken credit for the pause in the visas following her claims that the families arriving from Gaza “threaten our national security.”
Loomer specifically criticized HEAL Palestine, an American nonprofit dedicated to providing critical aid to Palestinian families, including bringing kids suffering from severe injuries, psychological trauma and malnourishment to receive care in the US. The group says it has evacuated 63 injured children and 148 total people.
The group, which returns Palestinians back to the Middle East after they are treated in US hospitals, criticized the Trump administration’s move to halt visitor visas, saying in a statement on Sunday, “this is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program.”
As of May, the US has issued almost 4,000 visas to people holding Palestinian Authority passports permitting them to seek medical treatment in America. That number also includes Palestinians living outside of Gaza, such as in the West Bank.
Rubio said Sunday that while a “small number” of visas had been issued to children, “they come with adults accompanying them, obviously, and we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted.”
“We’re not going to be in partnership with groups that have links or sympathies towards Hamas,” he continued, without naming any specific groups or providing more information to corroborate the administration’s concerns.
CNN reached out to the State Department for more information about the evidence cited by Rubio.
President Donald Trump acknowledged last month there is “real starvation” in Gaza, breaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with.
“I see it, and you can’t fake that. So, we’re going to be even more involved,” Trump told reporters of the humanitarian crisis.
