Exclusive: Trump's "pro-Hamas" purge could block foreign students from colleges

Axios

27-03-2025

The Trump administration is discussing plans to try to block certain colleges from having any foreign students if it decides too many are "pro-Hamas," senior Justice and State Department officials tell Axios.
Why it matters: The effort — which could include grand jury subpoenas —marks another escalation of Trump's aggressive crackdown on immigration and antisemitism that civil libertarians say stifles campus speech and has led to several lawsuits.
Zoom in: The idea of prohibiting colleges from enrolling any student visa-holders grew out of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's " Catch and Revoke" program, which now is focusing on students who protested against the war in Gaza.
A senior State Department official called the demonstrators it's targeting "Hamasniks" — people the government claims have shown support for the terror group.
More than 300 foreign students have had their student visas revoked in the three weeks "Catch and Revoke" has been in operation, the official said. There are 1.5 million student visa-holders nationwide.
"Everyone is fair game," the official said.
At the heart of the plan is the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which certifies schools to accept student visa-holders. Institutions have been decertified in the past if the government determines they have too many student-visa holders who are using the education system as a ruse to live and work in the U.S., officials say.
Now, the Trump administration is threatening to apply that decertification framework to the post- Oct. 7 demonstrations on college campuses.
"Every institution that has foreign students ... will go through some sort of review," the official said. "You can have so many bad apples in one place that it leads to decertification of the school ... I don't think we're at that point yet. But it is not an empty threat."
Columbia University and UCLA — both of which had controversial, disruptive pro-Palestinian protests last year — are among the schools mentioned the most often by administration officials.
Columbia officials couldn't be reached for comment.
"UCLA is committed to eradicating hate," a spokesperson for that university said, pointing to UCLA's new Initiative to Combat Antisemitism.
What they're saying: Critics accuse the administration of trampling free speech and due process rights, and of unfairly conflating support for Palestinian rights with backing Hamas, the terror group that rules Gaza.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan free-speech group, said the concept of decertifying entire universities based on who is "pro-Hamas" is "a worrying escalation."
"Deemed 'pro-Hamas' by whom? This kind of explicitly viewpoint-driven decision-making is ripe for abuse and risks arbitrary enforcement," FIRE legal director Will Creeley told Axios in a statement.
Zoom out: The administration's zero-tolerance immigration enforcement has provoked a spate of lawsuits, some of which are likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That's what the administration wants: to give the high court several opportunities to expand the executive branch's power to deport a noncitizen with little judicial review.
A judge Tuesday temporarily blocked federal agents from detaining Yunseo Chung, a Columbia student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. Her lawsuit argues that immigration enforcement can't "be used as a tool to punish noncitizen speakers who express political views disfavored by the current administration."
The first major case challenging Rubio's right to revoke a green card was brought this month by Mahmoud Khalil, an organizer of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia.
The big picture: As the political parties realign, the GOP increasingly appeals to non-college voters and has clashed with academics and higher-education experts on cultural issues, including the Gaza war.
Student visa holders are a lucrative revenue stream for colleges that can be choked off by the executive branch.
"That's one of their biggest cash cows, foreign students. That's a meaningful source of revenue for them," a senior Justice Department official said.
"What you're going to see in the not-too-distant future is the universities that we can show that were not doing anything to stop these demonstrations in support of Hamas — or encouraged enrollment by activists — ... we can stop approving student visas for them, and they can no longer admit foreign students," the official said.
Catch up quick: The Trump administration's assault on colleges and that had significant pro-Palestine, anti-Israel or antisemitic activism spans both coasts.
Last week, to escape losing $400 million in federal money, Columbia caved to administration demands to combat antisemitism and limit protests.
On March 5, the DOJ's new antisemitism task force launched a civil rights investigation into the University of California system.
On March 10, the Education Department sent letters to 60 universities warning them of possible civil rights enforcement actions concerning antisemitism.
And on March 18, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest siding with Jewish students suing over antisemitic activity during protests at UCLA.
What's next: The DOJ also is monitoring a new federal lawsuit from Columbia students accusing protest organizers of acting as a "propaganda arm" of Hamas.