Stamped out: Trump vows to deport foreign students amid campus protest crackdown

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order for “immediate action” from law enforcement to deport non-US citizen students for protesting the war in Gaza.  

“Come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” the President pledged. 

The executive order, signed on 29 January, only affects non-US students and allegedly forms part of Trump’s crackdown on antisemitism on university campuses.  

The Department of Justice aims to “aggressively” prosecute these individuals for “terrorist threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews”. The executive order aims to hold accountable these perpetrators of “unlawful antisemitic violence”. 

College campuses […] have been infested with radicalism like never before

US President Trump

President Trump added: “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.” 

Trump’s efforts show that the fallout of student protests and conflict are obviously far from resolved. There now arise complications surrounding free speech, alongside the reality that these consequences are only befalling foreign students, not US nationals.  

In addition, the move is explicitly encouraging universities to track and investigate their personnel, especially “alien students and staff”. 

The order is a response to the “explosion” of antisemitism since October 2023, when the Israel-Palestine conflict reignited. Widespread debates around human rights and genocide soon resurged, with student activists quickly becoming engaged in the protests and discourse.  

While the protests were largely peaceful, US policymakers experienced growing discomfort with public criticism of Israel, a core national ally.  

Islamophobic and antisemitic threats have also spiked on US campuses since the war.  

Some civil rights advocates have argued that Trump’s recent actions aim to transform peaceful protesters into antisemitic terrorist sympathisers

Pressure from donors and legislators led many universities to crack down on pro-Palestine activities on campus, and as many as 3,000 students were arrested when the protests were at their peak in 2024. 

Some civil rights advocates have argued that Trump’s recent actions aim to transform peaceful protesters into antisemitic terrorist sympathisers.  

The Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote in a statement: “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. 

“So is the administration’s apparent threat to deport any foreign student who merely participated in anti-genocide protests.” 

[The order] appears to implicitly go against the US First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech

Deportation is not, however, an explicit action within the executive order, despite Trump referring to it as the appropriate response. Nevertheless, these references have been pointed out as potentially unconstitutional if implemented. 

This is because it appears to implicitly go against the US First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and the press. 

The executive order suggests that universities may be able to censor and report students and staff despite the constitution, limiting political speech on campus.  

Trump has also threatened to pull funding from universities if they do not follow this new monitoring policy.  

Overall, this issue raises complex questions surrounding constitutional rights, free speech, deportation, and university conduct from both students and staff. It is important to consider why the crackdown is centred upon educational spaces, rather than on broader, violent protests.  

President Trump’s repeated refusal to condemn antisemitism when it comes from his own supporters is helping to enable the troubling rise in antisemitism that we see today

Ben Olinsky, fellow at the Center for American Progress

There has been much criticism directed at President Trump for his affiliation with alleged antisemites without consequence.  

Ben Olinsky, a fellow at the Center for American Progress, pointed out that a true antisemitic crackdown would begin with Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), after his apparent Nazi salute at the US Inauguration. 

“President Trump’s repeated refusal to condemn antisemitism when it comes from his own supporters is helping to enable the troubling rise in antisemitism that we see today.”