(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump is threatening to pull federal funding from colleges and warns that protestors will be punished.
Students from outside the U.S. could face imprisonment and deportation if not from the U.S., while any American students will be expelled if they are found to be involved in protests that Trump called “Illegal.”
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.
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“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he added.
This comes a day after he promised to pull more than $50 million in funding contracts over Columbia University’s alleged inaction against anti-Israel protests.
Columbia responded in a statement saying they are “fully committed to combatting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we are resolute that calling for, promoting, or glorifying violence or terror has no place at our University.
“We look forward to ongoing work with the new federal administration to fight antisemitism.”
Last spring, protestors occupied the western quad of Columbia, with school professors locked in arms, supporting their First Amendment right to protest. The protestors later took over Hamilton Hall.
NYPD stormed the building in riot gear and arrested dozens. Nearly 30% of those protestors were not affiliated with the school.
Over 2000 protestors were arrested on college campuses across the country last year. In their wake, the presidents of Columbia, Harvard, Cornell, and U Penn resigned.
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Last week, pro-Palestinian protestors swarmed Barnard College’s Millbank Hall. Barnard has a partnership with Columbia and is considered an official college of the Ivy League school.
Barnard College President Laura Ann Rosenbury drew a “line in the sand” following the incident.
“Disrupting classes and defacing buildings is not academic exploration. It is a betrayal of the goals and sanctity of higher education,” Rosenbury wrote.
