Trump Cancels Pro-Palestine Visas

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to combat antisemitism and pledged to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests.

"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," Trump said in the fact sheet.

"I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before," the president said, echoing a 2024 campaign promise.

Rights groups and legal scholars said the new measure would violate constitutional free speech rights and would likely draw legal challenges.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a large Muslim advocacy group, said it would consider challenging the order in court if Trump tried to implement it.Many pro-Palestinian protesters denied supporting Hamas or engaging in antisemitic acts, saying they were demonstrating against Israel's military assault on Gaza, where health authorities say more than 47,000 people have been killed.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, a nonpartisan civil rights group, said the group was deeply troubled by the apparent conflation of criticism of Israel with alleged antisemitism. Berry said the order would have a chilling effect on free speech across the U.S.