Last month, amid nationwide student protests that threatened Jewish students and effectively shut down college campuses, 27 Republican U.S. senators sent Attorney General Merrick Garland and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona a letter urging them to restore order and shut down the antisemitic, pro-Palestine mobs.
The letter requested an April 24 update that detailed the steps that Garland’s office would take to restore campus order and allay the Jewish students’ fear for their safety.
From the senators’ letter:
“You need to take action to restore order and protect Jewish students on our college campuses. President (Joe) Biden issued a statement on Sunday, purporting to condemn the outbreak of anti-Semitism. If that statement was serious, it must be accompanied by immediate action from your departments.”
They continued:
“Rioting violates federal law. Violence or attempted violence against anyone because of their Jewish heritage violates federal law. School administrators’ failure to protect Jewish students from discrimination or harassment violates federal law, and is grounds for those schools losing access to federal funds. Espousing support for terrorists such as Hamas violates federal immigration law, and is grounds for deportation.”
A week after the April 24 deadline, the senators had not received a formal reply, and the criminal protests accelerated.
Cardona is Puerto Rican and may not have as strong a commitment to resolving the campus crimes as the Jewish Garland whose indifference is inexplicable.
At a House Judiciary Committee hearing last year, Garland emotionally testified that the Justice Department’s function is to provide equal protection to all. He then tearfully shared the story that two of his grandmother’s siblings were Holocaust murder victims.
The protection of the law provided equally to all, Garland continued passionately, is what makes America great, and what saved his immigrant grandmother’s life when the United States took her in.
“Under the protection of our laws, she was able to live without fear of persecution,” he concluded.
Garland’s refusal to actively support is a sign that Biden has intimidated him. But principled attorneys general stand up for what they believe in.
Last November, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the stepson of a Holocaust survivor, to revoke the visas of agitators who support Hamas.
In his statement, Rubio reminded Democrats that a visa is not a constitutional right but rather temporary permission for foreign nationals to visit the United States.
After he filed a motion to deport terrorist sympathizers, Senate Democrats blocked it. Biden also rejected Rubio’s suggestion and instead extended protections to “some Palestinians” from deportations.
Biden’s remarks regarding Palestinians’ protections are telling, and consistent with his open borders policy. He said he has determined that with some exceptions “it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to defer for 18 months the removal of any Palestinian subject.”
First, Biden did not explain the thought process that led to his conclusion that “the foreign policy interest of the United States” is advanced by the nonremoval of Palestinian subjects.
Second, U.S. presidents do not have the constitutional authority to determine which foreign nationals remain and which must be removed.
Third, Biden pressed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to reward with work permission Palestinian “noncitizens whose removal has been deferred.”
He then pressed Mayorkas “to consider suspending regulatory requirements with respect to F-1 nonimmigrant students who are Palestinians,” presumably a recommendation that students be granted employment authorization, an affirmative benefit that their visa forbids.
Mayorkas does not have the sole authority to defer deportation or to grant work permission to nonimmigrant visa holders or visa overstayers. Congress, not the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority over immigration.
Finally, more foreign-born authorized workers depress native Americans’ job opportunities; since 2019, all the net job growth has gone to immigrants.
Biden’s sweeping statement for Palestinian protections could include rabble-rousing students who may be present on F-1 visas.
The nonimmigrant student visa is a program that allows international students to study at American universities, with the understanding that after graduation, they will return home to use their U.S. degree to improve their native countries’ quality of life.
Many, however, overstay their visas, and because of the relative ease with which foreign graduates of U.S. colleges may remain in the United States and seek employment, recent American graduates frequently compete with their foreign peers for jobs.
Because employers view corporate diversity as positive, they give preference to international candidates over equally qualified Americans. In fiscal year 2022, an estimated 850,000 visa holders, including 55,023 student and exchange visitors who overstayed.
The F-1 visa is an unwieldy program that has no annual limit on incoming students. For the 2022-2023 academic year, 1,057, 188 international students were enrolled in U.S. universities including 23, 246 at Columbia from 162 countries.
Columbia University and UCLA are the epicenters of the ongoing student chaos. The numbers mark an almost 12% jump from the previous year, and the fastest growth rate in more than 40 years.
To help assure a safe and orderly academic environment, the State Department must review the F-1 visa, impose an annual numerical total that does not exceed 500,000, and work with the Homeland Security Department to institute a vigorous post-graduate enforcement policy to ensure that students return home when their visas expire.