On January 29, Trump signed a new executive order detailing “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.” The order directed several officials, specifically the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security to guide higher education institutions to “report activities by alien students and staff” that Trump’s administration could consider as anti-semitic or supportive of terrorism. Such reports could “lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.”
In a White House fact sheet regarding this executive order, Trump’s administration announced its intention to “Deport Hamas Sympathizers and Revoke Student Visas.”
“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,” said Trump in a statement. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
Last spring, students in the US waged a historic struggle in an attempt to seek divestment of the US university system from Israeli genocide, staging Gaza solidarity encampments across the country that inspired students to do the same around the world. Students at encampments across the country were brutalized by police and right-wing Zionist counter-protesters alike.
The student movement for Palestine also became a target of right-wing politicians who sought to discredit the movement, resulting in the high-profile resignations of some university presidents, including Harvard University’s Claudine Gay.
Trump’s executive order is not the first time that students expressing solidarity with Palestine have been threatened with deportation. Last year, Cornell University student Momodou Taal faced deportation after his suspension from the institution following his participation in a pro-Palestine action on campus.
Taal and other pro-Palestine student organizers successfully shut down a career fair at Cornell last week, which was attended by defense contractors L3Harris and Boeing. Cornell students have joined the demand of the student movement across the country for their universities to divest from corporations complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which includes weapons manufacturers.
Following ripples of outrage throughout the Palestine solidarity movement, Cornell backed down, allowing Taal to retain official status as an enrolled student, allowing Taal to keep his F-1 visa.
National Students for Justice in Palestine, a key organization in the student movement for Palestine in the US, said in response to Trump’s executive order that “No person should have to live in fear of deportation, whether they be a student fighting for Palestinian liberation or an immigrant trying to live in safety and dignity.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced the executive order as an attack on free speech.
“Free speech is a cornerstone of our Constitution that no president can wipe away with an executive order. Like the college students who once protested segregation, the Vietnam war, and apartheid South Africa, the diverse collection of college students who protested against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza deserve our country’s thanks,” the organization stated. “It’s time for President Trump to pursue an America First agenda, not an Israel First agenda.”
