Trump threatens to arrest and deport student protestors
In a post on Truth Social, the 47th US president declared that all federal funding would “STOP” for any higher education institution that allows “illegal protests”.
“Agitators will be imprisoned/permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention on this matter.”
Trump’s remarks were condemned by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) for violating the “proud American tradition” of freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.
“Today’s message will cast an impermissible chill on student protests about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the group said.
While Trump did not specifically mention pro-Palestinian protesters in his post, in January 2025 he signed an Executive Order to combat antisemitism, vowing to revoke student visas and deport non-citizens who participated in the pro-Palestine protests that swept US college campuses last year.
More recently, a newly created federal task force to combat antisemitism announced last week that it would visit 10 college campuses to investigate incidents of antisemitism.
What’s more, on March 3, the task force said that it was considering halting over USD $51m in contracts with Columbia University over the institution’s “ongoing inaction in the face of relentless harassment of Jewish students”, according to the government.
In response to the threat of funding being pulled, Columbia University said it was “fully committed to combatting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination”, and that “promoting or glorifying violence or terror” had no place at the university.
The nine other institutions identified by the task force include: George Washington University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, Northwestern University, UCLA, Berkeley, the University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California.
“The task force’s mandate is to bring the full force of the federal government to bear in our effort to eradicate antisemitism, particularly in schools,” said Leo Terrell, assistant attorney general for civil rights: “These visits are just one of many steps this administration is taking to deliver on that commitment.”
Several of the colleges due to be visited by the task force saw high-profile pro-Palestine protests in the wake of Hamas’s October 7, 20023 attacks.
While a small number of protests drew clashes with the police, they were overwhelmingly peaceful. At Columbia, Jewish students held a Passover Seder to express their support for a ceasefire.
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