Rubio defends State Department halting Gaza visitor visas

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday defended the State Department’s move to halt Gaza visitor visas to the United States, saying he’s seen evidence linking visa recipients to terrorist groups in the region.

In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” host Margaret Brennan asked Rubio why children seeking medical aid in the U.S. would be a threat, a day after the State Department announced it would conduct a review of the processes used to issue temporary medical-humanitarian visas.

“First of all, it's not just kids,” Rubio said. “It's a bunch of adults that are accompanying them.”

“Second, we had outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it, and so we're going to reevaluate how those visas are being granted,” he continued. “Not just to the children, but how those visas are being granted to the people who are accompanying them and, by the way, to some of the organizations that are facilitating it.”

Rubio said “numerous” congressional offices have presented evidence “that some of the organizations bragging about, and involved in, acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas.”

“And so we are not going to be in partnership with groups that are friendly with Hamas. So we need to — we're going to pause those visas,” pending further review, he continued.

The State Department said Saturday that all visitor visas for Palestinians in Gaza “are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.”