Trump Signs Order to Combat Antisemitism, Deport Hamas Supporters: 'We Will Find You'
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday promising "immediate action" from the Department of Justice to deport foreign national college students and resident aliens who took part in pro-Hamas protests after the terrorist group massacred 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostage.
A document describing the proposed order explained the DOJ was instructed to prosecute "terrorist threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews" and to use resources to combat the "'explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets" since October 7, Reuters reports.
"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 said in the fact sheet. "I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before."
Trump signed the order later Wednesday fulfilling a campaign promise to fight antisemitism.
"These 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," Trump wrote.
The order outlines that all federal agencies, including the Department of Education, have 60 days to submit reports compiling all pending administrative complaints against institutions of higher education alleging civil-rights violations "related to or arising from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism."
It also says that these institutions can "monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds" and if necessary investigate activity, and even "remove such aliens."
Critics contend the measure would violate constitutional free speech rights and will likely face legal challenges.
"The First Amendment protects everyone in the United States, including foreign citizens studying at American universities," Carrie DeCell, an attorney at Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute, told Reuters.
Shai Davidai is an assistant professor at Columbia University and Israeli. He told CBN News he has been barred from the school for the last three months for speaking out against the protests and believes Trump's order is necessary.
"As long as President Trump's executive order focuses on people that broke the law, focuses on them regardless of their ethnicity, gender, sex, national origin and gives them due process to defend themselves in the legal court I see no problem," he said.
As CBN News reported, shortly after Hamas committed atrocities against innocent Israeli civilians, students at the University of Wisconsin Madison chanted, "Glory to the martyrs [of Hamas]," and Cornell University Professor Russell Rickford called the Hamas killings "exhilarating."
Pro-Hamas protests paralyzed campuses across the country resulting in damaged buildings, destroyed common areas, and dozens of arrests. At the center of the showdown were Ivy League schools like Columbia University and Harvard University.
As CBN News reported, a Jewish Columbia University student sued the school for allegedly failing to provide a safe environment.
The class action lawsuit claims Columbia became "a place that is too dangerous for Columbia's Jewish students to receive the education they were promised."
Becket Law, a non-profit legal group, filed a lawsuit last year against the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for allowing an antisemitic encampment and discrimination against Jews on campus.
And in December, the FBI arrested and charged a George Mason University student for allegedly planning an attack on the Israeli consulate in New York City.
Trump's order cites a recent House report, The House Antisemitism Staff Report, which found that universities across the country have violated the civil rights of Jews in their handling of anti-Israel campus protests.
This effort was led by the Education and the Workforce Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Oversight Committee, the Veterans Affairs Committee, and the Ways and Means Committee.
After the seven-month investigation, lawmakers found that U.S. higher education institutions failed to address antisemitism on campus and recommended more oversight for the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies.
"This failure is unacceptable and ends today," Trump said.
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