The President has signed another controversial executive order.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order which will revoke the student visas of ‘Hamas sympathizers’ who protest Israel’s war in Gaza.
Since the returning president’s inauguration on 20 January, he has signed several controversial executive orders, undoing the work of the Biden administration and cementing his beliefs on American society.
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order which will see 30,000 migrants be moved to Guantanamo Bay on the island of Cuba.
His most recent directive promises “immediate action” from federal law enforcement against noncitizen college students and others in the United States who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations during Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
According to The New York Times, the 47th President of the United States has pledged to “deport” all “resident aliens” who joined protests.
“Come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” he vowed.
“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,” the executive order states.
Under the order, government agencies have 60 days to produce a report “identifying all civil and criminal authorities or actions” to “curb or combat” antisemitism, with an inventory of complaints “against or involving” antisemitism in colleges and universities.
The order also instructs the Department of Justice to investigate graffiti that could be seen as pro-Hamas and any incidents of intimidation on college grounds.
Human rights groups and legal experts have hit back at President Trump, claiming that this directive comes into conflict with constitutional free speech rights in the country, and could be met with some legal challenges.
Earlier this week, Trump called for Palestinians to be “cleaned out” of Gaza, which he callously characterised as a “demolition site”.
His real-estate developer son-in-law Jared Kushner remarked last March that Gaza’s “waterfront property” could “be very valuable”, and also suggested civilians be moved out as the strip is “cleaned up.”
According to the UN, it has been reported that over 47,000 people – 45,936 Palestinians and 1,706 Israelis – have been killed in the conflict.
