How Trump's Latest Order To "Combat Antisemitism" Targets Pro-Palestine Visa Holders

US President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order to "combat antisemitism". The order asked federal agencies to identify "all civil and criminal authorities" to fight anti-Jewish activities in the United States, specifically by deporting "resident aliens" - such as students with visas - who were found to have broken the law during pro-Palestine protests.

The Presidential order requires federal agency and their leaders to provide recommendations to the White House within 60 days. It also asked the US Department of Justice to investigate pro-Hamas graffiti and intimidation, including incidents on college 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 says.

"It 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 added.

Target On Immigrants Student's Back?

The order appears to target activists, especially students with visas, who engaged in pro-Palestinian demonstrations following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli war in Gaza.

"[T]he Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security... shall include in their reports recommendations for familiarizing institutions of higher education with the grounds for inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3) so that such institutions may monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds and for ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens," the order said.

Trump's Threat

Republicans have been threatening for months to punish colleges that allow pro-Palestinian protests. During his election campaign, Trump had called for deporting pro-Hamas students who are in the US on visas. Last week, he also signed another executive order, which called for the US to "ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States" do not "support designated foreign terrorists." The order hinted towards the intended goal, though the wording did not make it immediately clear.

Last year in October, Republicans had also warned that they would pull billions of dollars of federal funding from several of the top universities in the US, and strip them of official accreditation, to punish them for "allowing" the protests.

The US president's latest crackdown on antisemitism came on the heels of his orders to temporarily freeze federal aid and the distribution of pending federal grants, the latter of which was paused Tuesday by a federal judge.