Trump administration to cancel student visas of pro-Palestinian protesters
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Students expressing support for Palestinians in Gaza, at the University of Michigan in November 2024.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Jan 29 to combat anti-Semitism and pledge to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, a White House official said.
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 pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Mr 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 Hamas attacks roiled US college campuses,
The order will require 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 anti-Semitism, and would demand “the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws.”
The fact sheet said protesters engaged in pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, blocked Jewish students from attending classes and assaulted worshippers at synagogues, as well as vandalising US monuments and statues.
Many pro-Palestinian protesters denied supporting Hamas or engaging in anti-Semitic acts, and said they were demonstrating against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, where the health authorities say more than 47,000 people have been killed.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a large Muslim advocacy group, accused the Trump administration of an assault on “free speech and Palestinian humanity under the guise of combating antisemitism”, and described the Jan 29 order as “dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable”.
During his 2024 election campaign, Mr Trump promised to deport those he called “pro-Hamas” students in the US on visas.
On his first day in office, he signed an executive order that rights groups say lays the groundwork for the reinstatement of a ban on travellers from predominantly Muslim or Arab countries, and offers wider authorities to use ideological exclusion to deny visa requests and remove individuals already in the country. REUTERS
