What’s behind Trump’s crackdown on US universities?
President Donald Trump has gone head-to-head with some of his country’s top academic institutions, describing them as hotbeds for "woke" liberal ideology. Since Trump took office in January, hundreds of students across the United States have faced threats of visa revocation. Some have been arrested for participating in pro-Palestinian protests or committing minor infractions. From multi-million dollar funding cuts to deportations, what is really behind Trump’s crackdown on universities?
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00:00Across the United States, universities are facing an unprecedented crackdown.
00:08From visa suspensions and deportations to cuts in funding,
00:12the Trump administration has escalated efforts to tighten control over the country's top academic institutions,
00:18taking particular aim at international students.
00:21We didn't imagine a situation that would be this bad.
00:24We know that President Trump hasn't been that supportive of academia in the past,
00:28but this has been absolutely unreal.
00:31The White House's latest move has been to suspend the processing of all student visas,
00:36part of a broader government plan to ramp up vetting of the social media profiles of international applicants,
00:42according to an internal government cable.
00:44We will continue to use every tool we can to assess who it is that's coming here,
00:49whether they are students or otherwise.
00:53The State Department has since said that a global suspension on visa processing
00:56for international students would be brief,
00:59but confusion and concern remains for students preparing to start class this fall semester.
01:03U.S. campuses like Columbia University in New York were rocked by student protests
01:16against Israel's war in Gaza in the spring of 2024.
01:27The movement saw campus buildings across the country occupied,
01:31lectures disrupted, and sparked accusations of anti-Semitism,
01:35becoming a flashpoint in President Donald Trump's effort to reshape higher education.
01:40Very anti-Semitic when you take a look, whether it's Columbia, Harvard, Princeton,
01:45take a look, I don't know what's going on.
01:48Several hundred international students across the country have been threatened with the cancellation of their visas.
01:53Others have been detained or arrested for reasons ranging from taking part in the pro-Palestinian protests
01:58to minor infractions.
02:00This is not a matter of simply violating university rules.
02:04This is a movement, an anti-war movement.
02:07These April 2024 images show Mahmoud Khalil, a lead student negotiator of the protests at Columbia.
02:13Almost a year later, on the 8th of March, he was detained in front of his pregnant wife, Noor Abdallah.
02:18Khalil held permanent residency at the time of his arrest.
02:29The Trump administration has moved to revoke his green card,
02:32accusing Khalil of activities aligned with Hamas.
02:36Khalil's arrest has triggered outrage from free speech advocates,
02:43who say such a move threatens core democratic rights.
02:47Mahmoud Khalil was speaking out against U.S. government policies.
02:53And I want to ask you all,
02:56is this a democracy if we can't speak out against the policies of our own government?
03:03A federal judge has now ruled the administration's efforts to deport Khalil are likely unconstitutional.
03:09And it's not only students who've been impacted.
03:12Rasha Alouia, a professor at Brown University, was expelled from the U.S.
03:16after attending a funeral for the late Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah,
03:20during a visit to her home country of Lebanon.
03:22Hands off our doctors now!
03:24Hands off our doctors now!
03:26Rasha is the sweetest person.
03:29We've never had an issue with her in any way.
03:31She's an outstanding physician, outstanding person.
03:34She's a pleasure to work with.
03:37And we were horrified by this entire event.
03:40At a Senate hearing in May, Marco Rubio claimed to have revoked thousands of visas,
03:45largely those of students involved in pro-Palestinian activism.
03:49The Secretary of State has since vowed to aggressively revoke visas to students from China,
03:54a top source of students to the U.S.
03:57Rubio said he would particularly go after students with connections to the Chinese Communist Party
04:02or studying in critical fields.
04:05I think the point of the mass cancellations of visas, the revocation of lawful status without notice or process,
04:13and the immediate deportation of people, sometimes even including American citizens, it appears.
04:19I think that's just designed to create a climate of fear, and it has worked.
04:23It's worked astonishingly well, and unfortunately well.
04:26The administration has pressured dozens of universities to eliminate diversity policies,
04:31threatening to cut funding and labeling them hotbeds for woke liberal ideology.
04:36In March, the Trump administration cut $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University,
04:42accusing it of not sufficiently addressing anti-Semitism.
04:45Less than a week later, Columbia officials responded by stating they had issued suspensions,
04:50temporary degree revocations, and expulsions for students who had occupied a campus building during the 2024 Gaza protests.
04:57I myself was actually just expelled from Columbia two days ago for, you know, for participation in the protest to,
05:10you know, and the university's complicity in the genocide in Palestine.
05:15And it's, you know, it's pretty egregious.
05:19While some universities have complied with the Trump administration's demands,
05:23Harvard has rejected submitting to wide-ranging federal oversight.
05:27Its president, Alan Garber, stated the university will not surrender its independence or its constitutional rights.
05:34The administration has hit back with a raft of punitive measures,
05:37shedding Harvard's contracts with the federal government, slashing its multibillion-dollar grants,
05:42challenging its tax-free status, and seeking to ban the university from having foreign students.
05:47Undeterred by the cuts, the Harvard president doubled down against the administration at an annual graduation ceremony.
05:52Members of the class of 2025, from down the street, across the country, and around the world.
06:03Around the world, just as it should be.
06:17Foreign nationals make up more than a quarter of Harvard's student body.
06:26Their absence would mean major financial losses for the country's oldest university.
06:31Press our funding, now our trans.
06:34We will fight until this ends.
06:36Harvard's got to behave themselves. Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect.
06:42They've got to behave themselves. You know, I'm looking out for the country. And for Harvard. I want Harvard to do well. I want Harvard to be great again, probably.
06:51With visa restrictions and research funding cut, top scholars are already eyeing opportunities abroad.
06:57In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 1.1 million foreign students were enrolled at U.S. campuses. A record number.
07:08Free speech is the center of society. And in this case, to see banned words impringing on the freedom of thought and expression directly from the government, astonishing.
