Trump vows to deport student protesters

During the election campaign, the President and the Republican Party pledged to implement the policy after campus protests following the October 7th attacks in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.

On January 29th, President Trump signed an executive order entitled ‘Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism’.

In a related fact sheet on the order, the President said, “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

However, such language or direct provisions to cancel student visas with immediate effect were not included in the executive order itself.

In the executive order, the President orders the heads of several government departments and agencies to, within 60 days, identify civil and criminal actions that might be used to combat anti-Semitism and to provide analysis of all complaints “against or involving institutions of higher education alleging civil-rights violations related to or arising from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism”.

Those reports should contain analysis of court cases against or involving institutions and whether the Attorney General “intends to or has taken any action with respect to such matters”.

According to the New York Times, around 3,000 students (domestic and international) were arrested during protests, although most were released without facing criminal charges.

And the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Homeland Security are tasked with producing “recommendations for familiarizing institutions of higher education with the grounds for inadmissibility” so that “institutions may monitor for and report activities” by international students and staff relevant to the grounds for inadmissibility and ensuring that reports lead to investigations and if warranted actions to remove those involved, the executive order states.

Following the executive order, the U.S. Department of Education announced in a statement that investigations have been launched into five higher education institutions “where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported”.

The five institutions being investigated are: Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, The University of California, Berkeley, and The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Carrie DeCell, Senior Staff Attorney and Legislative Advisor at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement that the plans were unconstitutional.

“The First Amendment protects everyone in the United States, including foreign citizens studying at American universities. Government lawyers have already considered at length whether proposals to remove people from the country based on their political speech are constitutional, and their answer is almost certainly no. They’re right. Deporting non-citizens on the basis of their political speech would be unconstitutional.”

She said that two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements memos last year provided insight into how the First Amendment would limit efforts to revoke student visas and remove foreign nationals who express support for Hamas or criticize Israel’s actions.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said that development should worry all citizens, regardless of their position on the war.

“Student visa holders in the U.S. already risk deportation by engaging in criminal activity, and did so long before the enactment of this order. Students who commit crimes – including vandalism, threats or violence – must face consequences, including potential revocation of visas when appropriate,” a Spokesperson for the organization said.

“But the fact sheet released by the White House alongside the executive order goes well beyond criminal grounds for removal of foreign nationals to instead threaten viewpoint-motivated deportations.”

The executive order on measures to combat anti-Semitism followed a raft of executive orders on Trump’s first day in office, some of which have opened the door to potential travel bans on certain countries and stricter visa vetting procedures.