The new legislation is intended to punish college campuses for allowing protest camps, which was a common phenomenon in the past year when protesting against Israel’s war with Hamas.
The No Tax Dollars for Colleges Encampments Act, sponsored by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., would stop federal taxpayer dollars from going to schools that do not properly share policies about how they handle cases of civil disturbance by changing the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Banks stated in a press release, “Many of our academic institutions are now hotbeds of antisemitism, and even pro-terrorist ideologies.”
The senator said, “My bill will hold these universities responsible and stop American tax dollars being wasted on institutions which act as safe-havens for anti-American harassment and violence.”
The Banks bill is only one part of an overall crackdown, whether on public or private campuses, on how they handled protests, which in some cases targeted Jewish Students or caused them to feel unsafe.
The Trump White House canceled $400 million of federal funding for Columbia University. Columbia University gained national attention because its supporters claimed that the encampment was to support Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil, a key protester, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement because he entered the United States on a student visa. In a Truth Social post earlier this week, President Donald Trump stated that it was “the first of many arrests to come.”
In a post about the student that has since sparked protests, Trump said: “Following the Executive Orders I previously signed, ICE proudly detained Mahmoud Khali, a Radical Pro-Hamas Foreign Student, on the Campus of Columbia University.”
The Trump Administration won’t tolerate this. “We are aware that there are many more Columbia students and those at other Universities in the country who have been involved in anti-Semitic and anti-American activities. They are mostly paid agitators, not students. “We will apprehend and deport terrorist sympathizers to our country, never again,” he said.
The Department of Education has begun an investigation into 60 universities across the nation for potential Title VI violations concerning antisemitism.
The Department of Education is disappointed to learn that Jewish students at top-tier U.S. universities continue to be concerned about their safety despite the antisemitic riots that have disrupted university life for over a year. Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education, said that university leaders “must do better”.
“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege, and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws,” she continued.
