Trump Threatens Deportations for Pro-Hamas Demonstrators and Signs Executive Order to Fight Antisemitism

Trump has threatened to deport and cancel the visas of pro-Hamas demonstrators on US colleges as part of an order he signed to combat antisemitism.

In response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to combat the rise in antisemitism.

The directive focuses on pursuing “terroristic threats, arson, vandalism, and violence against American Jews” and calls for the Justice Department to take “immediate action.”

Additionally, it demands more federal funding to fight antisemitism, which the administration says has escalated on American colleges and streets since the incident.

In the fact sheet that accompanied the order, Trump said, “We put all the resident aliens who participated in the pro-jihadist protests 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,” he said, pledging to revoke student visas for anyone who supports Hamas.

The executive order was swiftly attacked by civil rights organizations and legal experts who said that it violated the constitution’s guarantees of free speech.

“Everyone in the United States, including foreign nationals attending American universities, is protected by the First Amendment,” stated Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute.

“It would be unconstitutional to deport foreign nationals based solely on their political speech.”

Concerned as well, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a well-known Muslim advocacy organization, said it would take legal action if Trump went ahead and carried out the order.

Following months of pro-Palestinian demonstrations triggered by the Hamas attacks and the Israeli military’s following actions in Gaza, the move was taken.

Alongside these demonstrations on American college campuses, hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, Arabs, and other Middle Eastern communities have increased.

The executive order requires federal agencies to report to the White House within 60 days on strategies to combat antisemitism through criminal and civil actions, and it calls for the deportation of non-citizen protestors.

Additionally, it requires a review of court proceedings pertaining to K–12 educational institutions, colleges, and universities, which may result in the expulsion of “alien students and staff.”

Many pro-Palestinian demonstrators, however, claim that their protests are meant to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza, where over 47,000 people have purportedly been killed, and deny backing Hamas or acting in an antisemitic manner.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, voiced worries about the order’s possible repercussions.

“The seeming confusion of criticism of Israel with alleged antisemitism deeply disturbs us,” she stated.

“Free speech would be suppressed throughout the United States by this order.”

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