Trump Orders Agencies To Target Universities Over Antisemitism Complaints, ‘Monitor’ International Students

President Donald Trump instructed universities, including Harvard, to monitor international students for suspected participation in crime or terrorism in an executive order Wednesday evening aimed at combating antisemitism.

Wednesday’s order follows threats by Trump to crack down on international students who participated in pro-Palestine activism.

The order set a 60 day deadline for each federal agency, including the Department of Education, to submit reports compiling all cases alleging civil rights violations in connection with antisemitism occuring after Oct. 7, 2023.

A section of Trump’s executive order specifically advises federal agencies to help universities supervise, investigate, and deport international students and staff members if they are found to have broken laws while supporting Palestine.

“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 wrote in a fact sheet on the order.

The order — which vows to “combat anti-Semitism vigorously” — does not include a directive to cancel visas from international students who have broken laws in pro-Palestine protests. That threat, reported Wednesday morning, sparked fear over possible deportation orders.

In the order, the Trump administration does say reports from institutions of higher education could lead “as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens.”

The action is the latest in a slew of executive orders targeting universities, including an order to terminate diversity programs that could violate civil rights laws and a freeze on federal grant payments that was quickly withdrawn after a federal judge temporarily blocked it.

A University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening.

Trump tasks the U.S. Department of Education in particular with creating an inventory of all Title VI “complaints and administrative actions” brought under its Office for Civil Rights post-October 7.

Harvard quietly closed a Title VI complaint filed with the Office of Civil Rights shortly before Trump took office. The OCR concluded that Harvard failed to properly protect its Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students.

Trump wrote that the Biden administration’s failure to defend Jewish students and stand against antisemitism “is unacceptable and ends today.”

—Staff writer Annabel M. Yu can be reached at annabel.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @annabelmyu.

—Staff writer Sheerea X. Yu can be reached at sheerea.yu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @_shuhree_.