President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order to combat antisemitism, including on U.S. college campuses. The order includes many directives, such as working to deport pro-Hamas and Palestinian rioters who are in the country illegally, or rescinding their visa status and remove them from the country.
During his first administration, Trump issued an executive order to combat antisemitism, “finding that students, in particular, faced anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on university and college campuses.”
The Biden administration “effectively nullified” the order, Trump says, as the world witnessed violence against Jews unfold on U.S. streets and college campuses after the Oc. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
Antisemitism flourished for more than a year, with pro-Hamas and Palestinian protesters taking over U.S. college campuses, attacking Jewish students, harassing and threatening public officials, The Center Square reported.
After Oct. 7, antisemitism and violence initially escalated against Jews in America by nearly 400%, The Center Square reported; nearly 80% of antisemitic incidents reported came from the “far left;” Jewish students said they didn’t feel safe on U.S. college campuses.
The Hamas terrorist 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,” the order states.
“This failure is unacceptable and ends today.”
The Trump administration policy is to vigorously combat anti-Semitism “using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence,” the order states.
This includes directing all agency heads to identify all civil and criminal authorities or actions in their jurisdictions to take, including reviewing pending complaints related to higher education institutions post-Oct. 7, 2023.
The Office of the Attorney General is tasked with reviewing all court cases related to higher education institutions and civil-rights violations stemming from the Hamas terrorist attacks, file statements of interest or intervention, and take other actions.
The Secretary of Education is tasked with identifying all Title VI antisemitic complaints and administrative actions, including in K-12 education, pending or resolved after Oct. 7, 2023.
The secretaries of State, Education and Homeland Security are tasked with working together to ensure “activities by alien students and staff” on U.S. college campuses that are antisemitic, are reported “and, if warranted,” actions are taken “to remove such aliens.”
Trump’s order follows numerous attempts by Republicans to stop antisemitism. Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott and former U.S. senator and now Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, introduced the Preventing Antisemitic Harassment on Campus Act to hold higher education institutions accountable for not preventing or ending antisemitism on campus. The bill went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Rubio also called on the DOJ to investigate pro-Hamas domestic terrorist groups encouraging targeted violence against Americans and called for visas of Hamas supporters to be rescinded, something he is expected to pursue as Secretary of State.
U.S. House committees launched investigations into how $4 billion of federal taxpayer money was allocated to universities that enabled antisemitism, millions were allocated to anti-Israel professors, and $1 billion was allocated to a United Nations organization acting as a base for Hamas.
House Republicans also launched investigations into several Ivy League schools, resulting in the forced resignations of several presidents or deans.
Republican governors, attorneys general and state legislatures also took action to combat antisemitism in their states, including in Texas, where members of Congress were targeted by pro-Hamas rioters, The Center Square reported.
Trump’s actions are a marked reversal from former President Joe Biden who when asked to deport pro-Hamas rioters, expanded measures to prevent “certain Palestinians” from being deported.
Roughly 100 Democratic members of Congress called on Biden to grant Temporary Protected Status and/or authorize Deferred Enforced Departure for Palestinian noncitizens living in the U.S. According to 2022 Department of State data, 7,241 nonimmigrant visas were issued to individuals holding Palestinian Authority travel documents. Under the Trump administration, most TPS and DED authorizations are expected to end.
