‘You are not welcome here,’ DHS tells anti-Semites, terrorists
The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it will start using “antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals” as grounds to deny green cards, student visas, and other immigration benefits.
Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security “will consider social media content that indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor … when adjudicating immigration benefit requests,” the agency wrote in a press release.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration ramps up its crackdown on anti-Semitism on college campuses and beyond. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in late January to “combat anti-Semitism” nationwide and has vowed to revoke federal funding from any school that fails to protect Jewish students and rein in anti-Semitic protests.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in late March that the administration has canceled the student visas of more than 300 foreign nationals, including Cornell University graduate student Momodou Taal, a Gambian and British dual national who led pro-Hamas demonstrations at Cornell and repeatedly advocated for the destruction of the United States and for terrorism against Israel.
According to Wednesday’s press release, the Department of Homeland Security will target “those who support antisemitic terrorism, violent antisemitic ideologies and antisemitic terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah,” or the Houthis.
“There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here,” said Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin.
Secretary Kristi Noem “has made it clear” that people who think “they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-Semitic violence and terrorism” should “think again,” McLaughlin said. “You are not welcome here.”
