\n<\/p>\n
Over the past week, several leading GOP presidential candidates, including former President Donald Trump<\/strong>, have taken the ongoing Israel-Hamas war<\/a> as an opportunity to bash a tried-and-true GOP foe: American colleges and universities where students are participating in large-scale protests and rallies. Demonstrations include demands for a ceasefire, criticizing the killing of civilians in Gaza, and, most controversially, blaming Israel for Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack. Consequently, numerous top Republicans have begun issuing calls to deport student visa holders deemed supportive of Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and others.<\/p>\n The issue dominated<\/a> an Iowa campaign event on Friday, where several GOP presidential candidates competed to see who could promise the harshest possible crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters at U.S. colleges and universities. \u201cYou see students demonstrating in our country in favor of Hamas,\u201d Florida Governor Ron DeSantis<\/strong> said. \u201cRemember, some of them are foreigners,\u201d DeSantis said that, were he elected president, he would cancel the visas of pro-Palestine students.<\/p>\n Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley<\/strong>, who is currently nipping at DeSantis\u2019s heels in the polls, raised the possibility Friday of cutting or conditioning state funding to higher education. \u201cWe have got to start connecting their government funding with how they manage hate,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause when you do that, you are threatening someone\u2019s life. That\u2019s not freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n Offering a similar proposal, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott<\/strong> said that he would revoke Pell grant funding for universities that do not sufficiently condemn terrorism. A day earlier, the presidential hopeful, who is currently polling<\/a> in the low single digits, unveiled<\/a> a bill that would deny federal funds to any educational institution that attempts to \u201cauthorize, facilitate, provide funding for, or otherwise support any event promoting Anti-Semitism on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n Predictably, the current GOP frontrunner is setting the tone for these comments. At a campaign stop in Iowa last Monday, Trump said<\/a> that, if re-elected, he would revoke the visas of and deport \u201cradical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners\u201d enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, and promised to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to monitor what he called \u201cpro-jihadist demonstrations.\u201d<\/p>\n The former president also vowed to institute \u201cstrong ideological screening of all immigrants to the United States\u201d to prevent \u201cdangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and maniacs\u201d from coming to the U.S. \u201cIf you want to abolish the state of Israel, you\u2019re disqualified. If you support Hamas or the ideology behind Hamas, you\u2019re disqualified. And if you\u2019re a communist, Marxist, or fascist, you are disqualified,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Most legal experts agree that these proposals would fail to pass constitutional muster. \u201cThe First Amendment protects the right to speak of all people who live in this country, whether they\u2019re here as citizens, whether they\u2019re here as foreign nationals, whether they\u2019re students, whether they\u2019re visitors,\u201d David Cole<\/strong>, the national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union and a law professor at Georgetown University, told<\/a> The Washington Post<\/em> on Friday. Cole added that the various GOP candidate proposals were \u201cnonstarters.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite their dubious constitutionality, calls to punish or deport pro-Palestine protestors are And in the Senate, Florida Senator Marco Rubio<\/strong> wrote<\/a> to Blinken on October 15 demanding he institute \u201ca thorough review\u201d of all Visa holders and applicants in \u201ccoordination with law enforcement, both federal and state\/local, as well as universities.\u201d The next day, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton<\/strong> urged<\/a> Mayorkas to deport any foreign citizen deemed supportive of Hamas, citing language in the Immigration and Nationality Act. Cole said the latter proposal would create \u201ca serious First Amendment problem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe proposals are not unprecedented, but the precedents are not ones we should be proud of,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nalso<\/del> getting a hearing on Capitol Hill. On Friday, Indiana Representative Jim Banks<\/strong> and South Carolina Representative Jeff Duncan<\/strong>\u2014two members of the House Anti-Woke Caucus\u2014sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken<\/strong> and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas<\/strong> demanding they deport student and foreign exchange visa-holders who have \u201cendorsed terrorist activity.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve already had a record number of illegal immigrants from terrorist-harboring nations,\u201d Banks said<\/a>. \u201cWe need to shut down our border and then deport all non-citizen Hamas sympathizers.\u201d<\/p>\n