Trump order pushes universities to ‘monitor’ protesters on student visas
Universities have set up task forces, tightened discipline policies and used surveillance cameras to track protesters’ movements. They have hired private investigators to examine cases of anti-Israel speech and activism.
These are just a few of the measures administrators have taken to curb criticisms that they have allowed antisemitism to fester as pro-Palestinian demonstrations spread across campuses during the last academic year.
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On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an order meant to push them to do more — to “prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful antisemitic harassment and violence.”
Specifically, it directed several agencies, including the State and Education departments, to guide colleges to “report activities by alien students and staff” that could be considered antisemitic or supportive of terrorism so that those students or staff members could be investigated or deported as noncitizens.
The wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel have mostly been nonviolent. Protesters have said they are exercising their right of free expression, by demonstrating against Israel’s conduct in the war in the Gaza Strip. But some protests have led to vandalism and clashes between pro- and anti-Israel demonstrators. The police have been called to campuses to break up encampments and protests, and in the process, hundreds of students have been arrested.
Many Jewish students have said they felt unsafe or unsettled by the yelling outside their dormitory and classroom windows and threatened by the chanting of slogans that some construe as antisemitic.
After several university presidents were pulled in front of congressional committees to testify about their responses to the unrest, many have taken action to quell protest activity.
At Columbia University, for example, administrators pledged quick disciplinary action this month after four masked protesters interrupted a “History of Modern Israel” class and handed out flyers with antisemitic themes, such as one image of a jackboot crushing a Star of David. Three of the protesters have been identified; one, a Columbia student, was suspended. The other two, students of an “affiliated school,” were barred from campus.
“Disruptions to our classrooms and our academic mission and efforts to intimidate or harass our students are not acceptable, are an affront to every member of our University community, and will not be tolerated,” the institution said in a statement.
At New York University, administrators updated the nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy to clarify that discriminatory or hateful language against protected groups, even if masked in “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” could be examples of potentially discriminatory speech at the school that merits punishment.
“For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity,” the document states, referring to the belief that Jewish people should have a state in their ancient homeland. “For example, excluding Zionists from an open event, calling for the death of Zionists, and applying a ‘no Zionist’ litmus test for participation in any NYU activity” would all be discriminatory actions.
A growing number of universities, including NYU and Harvard University, are recognizing a definition of antisemitism that considers some criticism of Israel — such as calling its creation a “racist endeavor” — antisemitic. This has prompted concern among pro-Palestinian students and professors that their freedom of speech and their ability to protest Israeli actions will be severely curtailed.
The presidential order comes against a backdrop of both debate over what constitutes antisemitism and Republican insinuations that foreign students have played a particular role in the protests.
Foreign student visas were discussed in a December 2024 staff report on antisemitism, conducted on behalf of six House committees in coordination with the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.