As massive protests regarding American support for Israel in the Israel-Hamas conflict break out at schools across the United States, with the protests at New York’s Columbia University being particularly notable given the high profiles of some involved, DHS has indicated that, in some case, foreign student involvement in the protests could lead to them being deported.
That is because foreign students study in the United States on student visas, and so if they are suspended from school, as many protesters have been after getting arrested, that could impede their academic progress and put them in violation of their visas, which could then lead to DHS initiating procedures to remove them.
Such is what a spokesperson for DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations told Fox News. According to that spokesperson, an international student is “in status” and thus complying with their visa if they are making progress on their course of study. That spokesperson explained that, while a temporary suspension does not necessarily inhibit that progress and thus doesn’t put them in violation, it could do so in certain circumstances.
Beginning, the spokesperson explained, “A temporary suspension, even if that were a final determination for a student, does not necessarily mean that the student would fall below ‘normal progress’ in his/her course of study.” Continuing, and getting to how deportation proceedings could occur, the spokesperson said, “If a student were to be suspended, DHS would need reason to believe that the student would not be able to make normal progress in his/her course of study.”
Further, the spokesperson explained the bureaucratic procedures that would then need to be followed for deportation to occur, saying, “And if it believed a suspension merited that type of decision, it would have to initiate removal proceedings, which would be done on a case-by-case basis in conjunction with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA).”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee pushed for deportations in a post on X, saying that foreign students supporting Hamas should be deported and American students should have their loans revoked. She said, “Immediately deport all foreign students studying in the USA that support Hamas. We should also revoke federal student loans for any American student arrested for supporting Hamas.”
In another tweet on the matter, Blackburn said, “Today, Hamas sympathizing students spewing antisemitic hate are planning a walkout at Columbia and demanding the university divest from “Israeli apartheid.” Anyone who promotes terror on campus should be stripped of federal student loan funding. Deport all foreign students in the USA on visas who support Hamas.”
Watch footage of the protest at Columbia here:
Columbia University, for its part, announced that it would be making its end of semester classes online due to the massive protests and the challenges presented by them for those attempting to learn, saying, “It’s vital that teaching and learning continue during this time. We recognize conditions vary across our campuses and thus are issuing the following guidelines.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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