Republican Bill Calls For Antisemites to Be Deported

U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) speaking at a press conference on border security at the U.S. Capitol on February 14, 2024 in Washington, DC. Van Duyne has introduced legislation that would see foreign nationals arrested during “antisemitic” demonstrations deported from the United States.

A House Republican has told Newsweek why she is introducing new legislation which would deport any foreign national charged with a crime at “pro-terrorism or antisemitic rallies” anywhere in the United States.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne, from Texas, who has sponsored a proposed amendment to immigration laws, said legislative change is needed due to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on American campuses which she claimed had promoted “violence” and “extremism” with “college after college not responding.”

Van Duyne said she decided to introduce her bill after “seeing videos over and over and over again on college campuses where we’re seeing an uprising and it just seems to be a growing effort to just push hate, violence, extremism and we just saw college after college not responding.”

“Too many colleges have become breeding grounds for violent Marxist hatred for America and our allies, and we shouldn’t be putting up with that. We need to send a strong message that their lawless behavior will not be tolerated,” she told Newsweek.

“It’s time that we deal swiftly and I think decisively for those that come to our amazing country and they incite hatred for America, hatred for the Jewish people, and they despicably demand support for Hamas terrorism which inflicted the worst loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.”

Over the past few weeks activists have set up protest camps on campuses across the U.S., including Columbia University, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and New York University, all three of which have since been cleared by police.

Participants claim they are peacefully protesting against the ongoing Israeli military operation in Gaza but some Jewish students claim they have faced violence and intimidation, sparking condemnation from the White House.

The protests follow Israel’s air and ground operation against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 people according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The action is in response to the surprise attack on October 7, 2023, launched by Hamas on southern Israel which killed around 1,200 people and took several hundred more back to Gaza as hostages.

On May 1 Van Duyne introduced H.R. 8221, the bill “to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to the removability of aliens who are charged with any crime related to their participation in pro-terrorism or antisemitism rallies or demonstrations.”

The legislation, co-sponsored by Republicans Daniel Meuser and David Rouzer, was referred to the House Judiciary Committee that same day.

Asked whether her legislation could stifle free speech, Van Duyne insisted only those involved in criminal activity during protests would be targeted and U.S. nationals wouldn’t be affected.

She said: “We’re not talking about people who are American citizens. This is a bill that will trigger deportation of foreign nationals who are in America who are participating in these violent mob actions.

“They’re committing crimes, those crimes include criminal trespass, failure to comply with an officer, resisting arrest, disturbing the peace. Really what we’re seeing is anarchists who are trying to occupy college campuses.”

The Texas Republican later added: “A strong message needs to be sent that folks who are here in our country enjoying the privileges that our nation provides them, if they are going to support terrorist activities, if they are going to spit on the values of the U.S., we don’t need to have them here. It is a privilege to be in our country not a right.”

To get her legislation approved by Congress Van Duyne would almost certainly require some Democrats to give their support, with the party having a Senate majority and the GOP’s House majority being wafer thin. Van Duyne told Newsweek she hasn’t asked for support from Democrats yet but is “happy to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle.”

Separately Republican Senator Tom Cotton introduced the No Bailouts for Campus Criminals Act which would bar those arrested during protests from what he termed “Hamas sympathizers” from receiving any student loan forgiveness.

Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek such a move could lead to the wider politicization of student debt relief.

He said: “If passed, that could mean future legislators could time other actions to forgiveness, and those might not always align with the political stance in this given situation.”

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