President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday he would attempt to cut off federal funding for schools that allow protests and have students participating in them arrested, imprisoned, or deported.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
On Tuesday the ACLU penned an open letter to colleges and universities, calling on them to reject any federal pressure to run surveillance on or punish international students or faculty based on speech. The letter takes aim at two Executive Orders from the Trump administration, both issued in January, which targets students engaging in Constitutionally protected speech, particularly ones protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza, under the guise of “combatting anti-Semitism.”
“The federal government cannot mandate expulsion of students or threaten funding cuts to punish constitutionally protected speech on campus,” said Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project in a press release on the ACLU’s website. “While the administration can enforce Title VI to ensure a learning environment free from harassment, it cannot force universities into adopting restrictive speech codes that silence the viewpoints the government disfavors.”
While Trump’s statement flies in the face of the First Amendment, it’s not exactly clear how the administration plans to enforce it. Trump doesn’t have authority to unilaterally revoke federal funds from universities, nor can he force universities to expel students. While campus protests might violate some school rules or polices, they’re certainly not illegal. But, not having the legal authority to cut off federal funding for things hasn’t stopped the administration from trying since the day Trump took office.
“It’s hard to say that the tweet itself is unlawful, since it alone isn’t enforceable,” Jenin Younis, a civil liberties and free speech lawyer, told Al Jazeera. “So, it depends how the administration executes this particular threat, and it has not yet given details.”
More importantly, the threat of arrest, prison, and deportation for simply protesting on campus has a chilling effect on free speech both on campus and off. Many universities called police and had their own students arrested during on campus occupations to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Universities could continue or even ramp up those efforts.
“This executive order sets up a framework to encourage – but not require – schools to spy on and report their non-citizen students and staff,” Radhika Sainath, a senior lawyer at Palestine Legal, told Al Jazeera. “As far as we can tell, these will be non-binding guidelines with no enforcement power or pressure.”
Comments