Trump signs executive order to cancel student visas for Pro-Palestinian protesters

President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday pledging to deport non-citizen college students for taking part in pro-Palestinian protests last year, which he said will help combat antisemitism across the country.

After the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, protests broke out across the country, including on college campuses. 

Now, Pro-Palestinian supporters say they’ll push back on this order they say is unconstitutional.

"They’re over here working hard. They came on a student visa to go to school. Just because they’re trying to support a movement that catches their interests, it’s just not right. It’s messed up. I just don’t agree with it, honestly," said Stephen Fox, a student at San Jose State University. 

Students we spoke to at San Jose State University are weighing in on the executive order President Trump signed on Wednesday, vowing to cancel student visas for non-citizens who took part in the Pro-Palestinian protests.

"Honestly, I just think it’s fearmongering and trying to create immigrants as a common enemy of the American people and I think it’s certainly horrible and so sad," said Kiera Quast, a first-year student at San Jose State University. 

Still, Menlo College political science professor Melissa Michelson says the constitution protects everyone’s First Amendment rights.

"Regardless of whether you are here on a visa, if you’re a citizen, if you’re a non-citizen, if you’re a tourist, you still have these protections," said Michelson. 

The Council on American Islamic Relations says if the Trump Administration moves forward with an order to deport Pro-Palestinian student protesters, they will push back.

"In the same way that we celebrate student uprisings against the war in Vietnam, and student uprisings against Apartheid in South Africa. Donald Trump will be taken to court if he attempts to do this," said Zahra Billoo, with San Francisco Bay Area Council on American Islamic Relations. 

Research from non-profit ACLED says 97% of campus protests over the war in Gaza were peaceful. 

KTVU also reached out to the Jewish Community Relations Council, and they said they’re still examining this new executive order, but they do not support anyone being deported for exercising the First Amendment. 

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