Trump issues ban on 'illegal' college protests as he threatens students with arrest and deportation
4 March 2025, 13:11 | Updated: 4 March 2025, 13:15
Donald Trump will cut federal funding to all universities that allow “illegal” protests.
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Taking to TruthSocial, Trump announced that “agitators” would be arrested or deported as he demanded Universities end protests on campus.
It comes following months of college protests across the United States against Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Trump wrote: “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests.
“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.
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“American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Trump did not specify what constitutes an “illegal” protest.
Upon taking office, Trump signed an executive order calling for “all available and appropriate legal tools” to be made available to prosecute and remove perpetrators of “unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”
“Jewish students have faced an unrelenting barrage of discrimination; denial of access to campus common areas and facilities, including libraries and classrooms; and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault,” the order said.
It added: “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.”
“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
Free speech organisations have slammed Trump’s attempts to curb University protests.
“The strength of our nation’s system of higher education derives from the exchange of the widest range of views, even unpopular or dissenting ones,” advocacy group FIRE said.
“Students who commit crimes – including vandalism, threats, or violence – must face consequences, and those consequences may include the loss of a visa. But if today’s executive order reaches beyond illegal activity to instead punish students for protest or expression otherwise protected by the First Amendment, it must be withdrawn.”