Students expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza, at the University of Michigan in November 2024. - Reuters
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday (Jan 29) to combat anti-semitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.
A fact sheet on the order promises "immediate action" by the Justice Department to prosecute "terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews" and marshal all federal resources to combat what it called "the explosion of anti-semitism on our campuses and streets" since the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
"To all the resident aliens who joined in the protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you," Trump said in the fact sheet.
"I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathisers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before," the president said, echoing a 2024 campaign promise.
Rights groups and legal scholars said the new measure would violate constitutional free speech rights and would likely draw legal challenges.
"The First Amendment protects everyone in the United States, including foreign citizens studying at American universities," said Carrie DeCell, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
"Deporting non-citizens on the basis of their political speech would be unconstitutional."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a large Muslim advocacy group, said it would consider challenging the order in court if Trump tried to implement it.
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. Civil rights groups documented a surge in hate crimes and incidents directed at Jews, Muslims, Arabs and other people of Middle Eastern descent.
The order requires agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days on all criminal and civil authorities that could be used to fight antisemitism, according to the fact sheet.
It calls for an inventory and analysis of all court cases involving K-12 schools, colleges and universities and alleged civil rights violations associated with pro-Palestinian campus protests, potentially leading to actions to remove "alien students and staff."
Many pro-Palestinian protesters denied supporting Hamas or engaging in anti-semitic acts, saying they were demonstrating against Israel's military assault on Gaza, where health authorities say more than 47,000 people have been killed.
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, a nonpartisan civil rights group, said the group was deeply troubled by the apparent conflation of criticism of Israel with alleged anti-semitism.
Berry said the order would have a chilling effect on free speech across the US. - Reuters
