Quotes
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
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 continuedIt 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."
It addedThese 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."
He addedYou can be deported for expressing your First Amendment rights - it's shocking,
said USF student Jayden Joeckel
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
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 Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statementThe strength of our nation’s system of higher education derives from the exchange of the widest range of views, even unpopular or dissenting ones,
the group said in a statementJewish 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’s order saidInstead of addressing antisemitism on campus, this misguided legislation would punish protected political speech,
Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said in a statement at the time
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,
the Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote in a statementAntisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Trump’s order does not define antisemitism, though the State Department currently relies on the non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRAYou’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,
Trump saidWe are disgusted that Trump and his antisemitic, neo-Nazi, Christian nationalist allies are planning to deport students and other immigrants for protesting the Israeli military’s brutal assault on Gaza,
said Eva Borgwardt, spokesperson for the Jewish American group IfNotNow
The opposite is true: empowering the far right endangers Jews,
she saidWe will find you and we will deport you,
Trump said in a statement
I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries,
the White House letter shared by Netanyahu’s office noted, as reported by Associated Press
When I am president we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals
During a rally in New Jersey last May, Trump promised