In 2017, President Donald Trump enacted a drastic and unprecedented travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries, halting immigration from countries such as Iran and Somalia and blocking Syrian refugees from resettlement in the United States. Despite initial court injunctions temporarily blocking the order, a revised version of the ban gained Supreme Court approval in a 5-4 decision, and the travel ban went into effect.
For the following years of the Trump administration, families were separated and unable to reunite under what Trump called a “complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” When President Joe Biden assumed office, he rescinded the ban, allowing families to reunite and remain together.
However, with Trump’s return to power, fears of discriminatory and violent immigration policies have reignited. In his first week in office, he signed an executive order titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” The ban aims to strengthen national security and protect Americans from immigrants who “exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”
The new executive order gives U.S. officials 60 days to assess the internal vetting protocols of other countries. If they determine a country’s vetting process is “so deficient,” they can recommend suspending immigration from that country. The executive order also aims to deport foreigners who entered the United States illegally after Biden’s rescission of the ban.
This push for immigration control has caused many to fear its ramifications on Muslim communities, domestic and abroad. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee warns that the U.S. government has vested itself with “wider latitude to use ideological exclusion” in rejecting visa applications and deporting foreigners in the United States. The broad language grants wide discretion to officials to deport anyone who holds, or is perceived to hold, a belief deemed threatening. Increased power to define and act on what constitutes a threatening ideology leads to widespread discrimination and abuse of power where individuals are targeted because of the administration’s political motives — not because they are true threats to national security.
In May of last year, during his presidential campaign, Trump stated: “When I’m president, we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals, and if you come here from a violent country and try to bring jihadism, or anti-Americanism, or antisemitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You’ll be out of that school.” This rhetoric only intensifies the growing wave of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate that has spiked across campuses nationwide. This new Muslim ban isn’t just being used as a means to keep certain people from coming into the country, but also to target and expel individuals based on their identities and ideologies.
The executive order for the new travel ban mandates that immigrants admitted under Biden’s administration must be checked and are susceptible to deportation based on any grounds deemed valid under the new order. One such basis is ensuring that immigrants “do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists.”
Pro-Israeli groups and politicians often equate pro-Palestine students with Hamas or terrorists, which threatens student protesters on H1B visas who can be deported with the introduction of this ideological screening. Trump’s plan to deport protestors serves as an unprecedentedly significant move to decrease on-campus demonstrations as well as the presence of foreigners in the United States.
During his last presidency, Trump’s administration targeted Middle Eastern studies departments at U.S. universities, claiming that they promoted Islamic extremism. In 2019, the Department of Education launched an investigation into federally funded programs that focused on Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, criticizing them for indoctrinating students with views sympathetic to radical ideologies.
The potential effects on NYU are significant. In the 2023-2024 school year, NYU welcomed over 27,000 international students to study at its variety of campuses across the globe, with about 2% from the Middle East and North Africa, 63% from East and Southeast Asia and 18.76% from central and South Asia. According to the Islamic Center at NYU, over 3,000 Muslim students use its space and participate in organized events such as those hosted by the Muslim Student Association. Many of these students now face heightened risks due to their immigration status and political activism.
In the last year, hundreds of NYU students participated in pro-Palestine protests outside of the Stern School of Business, with more than 150 people getting arrested in April 2024. For students who protested while on student visas, their ability to continue doing so under a new Trump administration is now increasingly complicated as they may face deportation threats.
Muslim and pro-Palestine students are not the only groups to be targeted. Chinese students on student visas have been urged to remain in the United States for their spring semester due to fears of being unable to return if they go home. ICE raids targeting Latinx communities have already occurred in many metropolitan areas, including in Atlanta, Chicago and New York City. The imminent threat of deportation for many has become a focal point of concern, leading civil rights organizations and lawyers to work overtime to counter Trump’s bigoted policies.
In the face of rising anti-Arab and Muslim hate on campuses nationwide, NYU must act decisively to protect its student body. The university should provide resources to help students navigate the visa process and ensure protections for student protestors. NYU must also supply as much vital information to its students as possible, including clearly outlining the protection of student protestors, Arab and Muslim students and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies departments. This, combined with a public statement denouncing these xenophobic policies, would be a good start to approaching the problem.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact Leila Olukoga at [email protected].
