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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that seeks to deport international students who attended pro-Palestinian protests.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump reportedly told donors that he would crush pro-Palestinian protests and revoke visas for international students who attended them if he won back the White House.
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Last spring, police officers arrested thousands and students and faculty after colleges called them to clear pro-Palestinian tent encampments that had popped up on campuses across the country. The protesters demanded that their schools divest from Israel amid the war in Gaza.
Critics and supporters of Israel said the protests were antisemitic and made Jewish students feel unsafe, but student protesters denied that charge, saying they were demonstrating in opposition to Israel's actions in Gaza. Jewish students were among the protesters, and some Jewish groups expressed support for the protests.
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What To Know
Trump's order instructs the leaders of federal agencies to provide recommendations on "all civil and criminal" authorities or actions available to the White House within 60 days.
The order says the report should include details of all court cases involving schools, colleges and universities, which could lead to actions to remove "alien students and staff."
According to a White House fact sheet on the order, it will "marshal all federal resources" to combat what it calls "the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets" since the October 2023 Hamas attack.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked southern Israel, and its militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. In response, Israel launched a fierce air and ground war. Israel's response killed at least 47,000 Palestinians, displaced more than 90 percent of Gaza's population and reduced much of the territory to rubble before a ceasefire agreement was reached earlier in January.
Gaza's Health Ministry said that more than half of the dead were women and children, though it did not say how many of the dead were combatants, the Associated Press reported. Israel has said it killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Trump's executive order promises "immediate action" from the Justice Department to "protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities."
"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," Trump was quoted as saying in the fact sheet.
He continued, "I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before."
Can Pro-Palestinian Activists Be Deported?
Pro-Palestinian protesters who are in the U.S. on student or work visas may be forced to leave the country if their visas are revoked.
Carrie DeCell, a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement issued on Wednesday that deporting "non-citizens on the basis of their political speech would be 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," DeCell said.
Elora Mukherjee, a law professor and director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told Newsweek that the text of the First Amendment "refers to 'the right of the people peaceably to assemble,' and draws no distinctions based on a person's status as an immigrant. Those engaged in peaceful assembly, protest, or expression should not have their student visas revoked as a way to punish ideas disfavored by the federal government."
Jeff Wozniak, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who represents many student protesters, told ABC7 that there is a process that must be followed before a visa could be revoked.
"It's not just something that through the issuing of this order, it is just going to happen automatically," he said. "There has to be a review by ICE, by other departments, by universities."
He added: "These students that are on F-1 visas have First Amendment free speech rights. You don't get an F-1 visa based on your political views. It is for you to go to college and get an education." Newsweek has contacted Wozniak for further comment via email.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump's executive order said: "[Hamas'] attacks unleashed an unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses.
"Jewish students have faced an unrelenting barrage of discrimination; denial of access to campus common areas and facilities, including libraries and classrooms; and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault."
It added: "It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a news release: "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 Trump administration's attempt to smear the many Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian and other college students who protested the Israeli government's genocide in overwhelmingly peaceful ways represents a dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable attack on both free speech and the humanity of Palestinians, all for the sake of a foreign government. So is the administration's apparent threat to deport any foreign student who merely participated in anti-genocide protests.
"It is also important to note that the order completely ignores real and documented incidents of anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim violence against American college students by pro-Israel extremists, potentially including some Israeli soldiers here on student visas."
What Happens Next
Trump's order gives federal agencies 60 days to produce a report with recommendations on "all civil and criminal" authorities or actions that can be taken to fight antisemitism.
Update 1/31/25, 4:10 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add comment from Elora Mukherjee.
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