Since I first began organizing around Palestine, I have always tried to be cognizant of the privileges I had while organizing in the US as an American citizen. I know that I have no student visa to lose, my family is close enough to support me if an emergency occurs, and if I were ever arrested, I would not be deported. That is not the reality for international student organizers, who are being targeted by one of Donald Trump’s many executive orders. Can you imagine working your entire life to get to university, a place that is supposed to encourage new perspectives, only to have it ripped away from you when you do exactly that? It sounds dystopian, like some novel or movie set in an apocalyptic future, but this might be the reality of living in the Trump regime.

On January 29th, the 47th President signed an executive order titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism”. This executive order, one of many he has signed since entering office, specifically calls for the potential removal of international college students who participate in pro-Palestine rallies and protests. This order would disproportionately target Palestinian and other Arab students, who have been the faces of the student organizing movement over the past 15 months. For a nation that claims to value freedom of speech, this order does not seem to share in those beliefs. The executive order tries to hide behind the veil of protecting Jewish students, but in reality, it is a racist order from a racist President that wants to suppress student activism. Conflating valid critiques of the state of Israel with antisemitism, a legitimate issue, is dangerous and takes us further away from understanding this movement.  

I’m worried for my international friends at Villanova and across the country. I have met many students from other schools who this order would affect. They are instrumental to their schools and the movement’s success, yet President Trump’s racism in his targeting puts them in danger. The so called “land of the free” is trying to limit the speech of people who are watching their home get destroyed from halfway across the world. Palestinians have the right to fight for their freedom, and it is our duty as people who support justice to use our privilege as American citizens to support them in that fight.