Anxiety grips college students as Trump’s executive order targets Pro-Palestinian protesters
New York: Anxiety has begun to loom over college campuses as U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at combating "antisemitism," which includes pledges to deport non-citizen college students and others involved in pro-Palestinian protests.
The order promises immediate action by the Justice Department to prosecute “terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews” and marshal all federal resources to combat what it called “the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets,” as reported by The Indian Express on Friday.
For many international students, particularly those on F-1 visas, the order has raised deep concerns. A 29-year-old Indian student pursuing her Master’s at Columbia University shared her immediate reaction upon reading the news—deleting social media posts she made months earlier expressing support for Palestine.
“The executive order is against my very discipline, which encourages political engagement. I already feel like I’m being surveilled. This defeats the purpose of political thought that a university inspires,” the student pursuing Masters told IE.
Another 21-year-old Master’s student at Columbia echoed similar fears, stating, “I used to attend vigils and quietly chant in support. But now, even doing that feels risky. It would impact my future prospects.”
She told the news outlet that while she felt it was her responsibility to support the movement, the executive order made her feel that she could no longer take the risk. “My parents have invested so much in my education that I will have to stay away from all that can cause trouble,” she said.
In a chilling statement, Trump warned, “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.” He also pledged to cancel student visas for those sympathising with Hamas, accusing college campuses of being “infested with radicalism like never before.”
Eric Lee, an immigration attorney with Diamante Law Group, laid out the sweeping implications of the order. “It violates the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech,” Lee said, adding that the order could apply to any form of speech, from classroom discussions to essays submitted in class.
“The order draws on the darkest traditions of American history. It is urgent that international civil society stand up to prevent Trump from transforming the American university system into an enforcement wing of Trump’s deportation machine,” he was quoted as saying by IE.
While protests persist at universities, the fear of retribution has left many students questioning the cost of their activism.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
