Trump's plan to quell protests: 'Deport pro-Hamas radicals'

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, Donald Trump and other senior GOP leaders have repeatedly called for the Biden administration to revoke the visas of foreign nationals in the U.S. who openly support Hamas or other U.S. designated terrorist organizations.

Last month, one of the 20 promises in the preamble of the platform adopted at the Republican National Convention was to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”

But protest organizers contend that Trump and other Republicans are ignoring key facts. The overwhelming majority of demonstrators are U.S. citizens who, under the First Amendment and current U.S. law, have the right to express pro-Hamas, antisemitic or anti-Israel views as long as they don’t break the law.

And Muslim American civil rights organizations say the vast majority of pro-Palestinian protests have been peaceful and showed no public displays of support for Hamas.

The protests, which spread across American college campuses and took over streets in some cities this spring, are expected to flare up again at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week.

GOP officials and pro-Israel groups told NBC News that they have so far identified only four foreign students on academic visas who were reportedly arrested, barred from graduation or expelled for participating in unauthorized campus protests.

Former Trump administration officials argue that more foreign students are involved in the campus protests and accuse the Biden administration and universities of withholding such information.

Biden administration immigration officials told NBC News that, as of July, they had not terminated any student, or F-1, visas based on protest activity related to the Israel-Gaza war.

The four students flagged by Republicans and pro-Israel groups attended Harvard, Columbia and Emory universities and the University of Pennsylvania. The universities declined to comment, citing privacy concerns, or didn’t respond to requests for comment. The four students didn’t respond to requests for interviews.

Civil liberties groups say attempts to deport protesters who are visa holders for speech-related offenses would spark legal battles nationwide.

Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, argued that foreign nationals who are visa holders are also protected by the First Amendment. He contended that it would be unconstitutional for authorities to try to deport them based solely on their expressing support for Hamas at protests.