President Donald Trump is ordering the deportation of foreign students who took part in pro-Hamas protests on college campuses in the US.
A new executive order will target resident aliens including students with visas, who broke laws during demonstrations following the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel.
Trump said he would instruct his Justice Department to ‘aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews’.
He added: ‘To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice… we will find you, and we will deport you.
‘I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathisers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.’
It was the latest in a slew of orders that Trump has signed since becoming President as he looks to fulfill his campaign promises.
Many universities, particularly Columbia University in New York City, became the site of pro-Palestinian protests last year during the Israel-Hamas war
The students involved made radical demands that their universities sever financial ties to Israel and that the US end its military support for its longtime ally.
Trump’s latest order gives leaders of government agencies and departments 60 days to provide the White House with recommendations on how to identify anti-Semitic threats.
It comes as the US President invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House next week. He will become the first foreign leader to visit in Trump’s second term in office.
Trump’s latest executive order, due to be signed on Wednesday, is his second focusing on anti-Semitism.
He signed another executive order last week calling for the removal of foreign visa holders who ‘advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.’
During a rally in New Jersey last May, Trump promised: ‘When I am president we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals. And if you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism to our campuses we will immediately deport you.’
