President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to deport non-citizen college students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. Later that afternoon, he signed an executive order doing what he said — on shaky constitutional grounds.
Trump’s reasoning, cited on a fact sheet reported by Reuters, is “the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets.” This fact sheet also refers to international students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests as “resident aliens.”
The executive order, titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” includes a section explicitly asking institutions of higher education to monitor and report activities by international students and staff to “remove” them.
“It’s a frontal assault, not only on free speech but on whether we really are a multicultural society that welcomes differences of opinions and invites the kind of truth that can come out of that clash of opinions,” said Jody Armour, Roy P. Crocker professor of law at the USC Gould School of Law, about Trump’s pledge.
Armour called the legal grounds for Trump’s executive order “questionable,” as it assumes visa holders do not have First Amendment protections. He cited multiple cases, including a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Guantanamo Bay where all 9 justices agreed the U.S. Constitution gives protections to non-citizens legally on U.S. soil.
The law professor also brought up an 1866 case, Yick Wo v. Hopkins, which upheld due process rights for a Chinese national in California.
“‘The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is not confined to the protection of citizens,‘” Armour said, quoting the case. “‘Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws.‘”
Armour said the executive order is meant to have a “chilling effect” on pro-Palestinian protests.
“There’s a Palestinian exception that many people in the mainstream, the status quo and in the establishment don’t want to recognize,” he said. “They want to recognize the First Amendment. They want to praise it and laud it. But, with the Palestinian exception.”
While some Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League welcomed the order and said it would help squash antisemitism on college campuses, others, like Bend the Arc and Jewish Voice for Peace, said the order only creates fear and limits free speech.
“This Executive Order is pulled directly from the pages of the far-Right Heritage Foundation’s ‘Project Esther’ report, which is a blueprint for using the federal government and private institutions to dismantle the Palestine solidarity movement and broader U.S. civil society, under the guise of ‘fighting antisemitism,‘” JVP stated on their webpage in reaction to the new order.
International students comprised 26.6% of the student demographic last fall, with just over 12,000 in population at USC. These students, although not U.S. citizens, have been threatened by the president with this executive order to not protest international matters on U.S. soil.
However, they are still protected under the First Amendment according to Niels Frenzen, a clinical professor and co-director of the immigration clinic program at the USC Gould School of Law.
“[International students] would be entitled to a hearing in front of an immigration judge where they would be able to raise First Amendment protection defenses to any application of such an immigration law,” Frenzen said.
Frenzen also reaffirmed non-citizen students would not be deported automatically because their visas were canceled by the Trump Administration.
There would still be problems, though, for international students whose visas were taken away during their semester, he said. If the student travels home with a canceled visa, Frenzen said it would “create problems” for their return to the U.S.
During the pro-Palestinian encampments across college campuses last year, many international students feared deportation if they were ever suspended or charged. Now, a year removed, these fears have resurged.
Yousef Khafaja is an international student who attends California State University, Long Beach and participated in the USC and UCLA pro-Palestinian solidarity encampments last year. He was born to Palestinian immigrant parents in Germany and was raised there before he came to the U.S. on an F1 student visa.
Speaking to Annenberg Media at the protests last spring, Khafaja said he took precautions to protest peacefully and not to break any laws in fear of his visa being revoked and being deported.
Even after protesting peacefully, Khafaja’s visa — and academic future — could now be at risk due to Trump’s executive order.
“I don’t want to have lost all the money I’ve invested in studying here and living here, but I will also not let myself be intimidated,” Khafaja said. “I think that’s the number one thing [the U.S. government] wants, is they want to intimidate us. They want to take away our voices because they saw what we were capable of doing last year and they were terrified of us during [the] encampments.”
After the chaotic flurry of executive orders President Trump has signed, USC has yet to move on protecting international students. In a statement to Annenberg Media on Monday, the University said they will comply with existing university protocol in the face of ICE raids.
Despite this potential attack on academic debate, Armour had a message for international students who currently fear for their protected rights.
“Please continue to have tough conversations with your colleagues, your classmates, your friends,” he said. “You do have to realize the times we’re in are especially risky, so act prudently, but also be very engaged. That’s what you’re here for.”