More than 3,000 students have been arrested and detained for holding pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses across the U.S.
In response to Israel’s war with Hamas, which has claimed the lives of over 50,000 Palestinians, college students have held sit-ins, encampments and protests calling for the U.S. to withdraw its involvement. These demonstrations have spanned from April 2024 to present day. However, the advent of President Donald Trump’s administration has marked a period in which students have not just been arrested but posed with deportation.
On Jan. 29, Trump signed an executive order seeking to address antisemitism and deport noncitizens participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The order’s premiss conflates pro-Palestinian demonstrations to antisemitic, pro-terrorist acts, which have been contested by demonstrators and civil rights groups.
“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” as Trump’s fact sheet outlined. “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 order has already begun taking effect on campuses such as Columbia University. Immigration and Customs Enforcement revoked the visa of Ranjani Srinivasan and detained Leqaa Kordia and Mahmoud Khalil for their pro-Palestinian stances. In addition to apprehending students protesting, Trump has pressured universities to adhere to his efforts of punishing pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The Trump administration’s threat to cut Columbia’s $400 million in federal funding resulted in the university agreeing to employ Trump’s stipulations, including hiring more campus security that can arrest demonstrators.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, however, differ in their perception of their anti-war efforts. In an interview with NPR, suspended Cornell student, Nick Wilson, explains that “for me and for students like me — students who are facing police violence, students who are facing arrests, students who are facing suspension — this is a cause that just matters more.”
The crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations has raised concerns about the violation of college students’ constitutional rights.
“The First Amendment protects everyone in the United States, including foreign citizens studying at American universities,” Carrie DeCell, an attorney for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in an article by Reuters. The crackdowns likely violate protestors’ constitutional rights, making these arrests susceptible to legal challenges.
From April to June 2024, UCLA pro-Palestinian demonstrators experienced excessive force at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department and counterprotesters, detailed in a lawsuit 30 demonstrators filed against the university for failing to protect them.
Trump’s executive order has caused universities to follow suit in his policy efforts to quell pro-Palestinian demonstrations, resulting in the detainment and threatened deportation of immigrants participating in such demonstrations.
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