Higher ed group urges schools to resist Trump admin’s efforts to deport foreign protesters

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is urging colleges to withhold information about protesters’ identity from the Trump administration to prevent deportations.

In a letter addressed to colleges and universities Wednesday, AAUP warned of the “serious risks and harms” of complying with the Department of Education’s (ED) request for names and nationalities of students and staff involved in antisemitic campus protests. The Trump administration has already deported over 300 foreign students for their involvement in the demonstrations that have taken place on campuses across the nation since 2023.

“News reports have revealed that, as part of its investigation into alleged Title VI violations at dozens of universities and colleges across the United States, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education has requested the names and nationalities of students and faculty who may have been involved,” the AAUP wrote. “On behalf of our members and chapters, we write to you to clarify some of the legal implications of complying with the federal government’s request to provide the personally identifiable information of students and faculty, to make clear that you are under no legal compulsion to comply with such a request, and to strongly urge you not to comply, given the serious risks and harms of doing so.”

In February, the administration assembled the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, made up of ED, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The task force stated its “first priority will be to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses” and has since begun its review of schools’ compliance with civil rights enforcement.

ED sent letters to 60 universities in February warning them of “potential enforcement actions” if they did not step up to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination.

AAUP argues that identifying information about protest participants is “irrelevant” and that “sharing this information is inconsistent with institutional commitments to freedom of speech and academic freedom.” AAUP referred to the deportation of foreign radicals as “ICE abductions” and said the foreigners are “victims.”

AAUP also claimed releases the information about students would violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which prohibits schools from disclosing personally identifiable information from students’ education records without the consent of the student or their parent.

The Trump administration has been pulling federal funds from schools failing to comply with federal law and executive directives, recently freezing around $210 million to Princeton University over concerns of how it has handled antisemitism on campus and another $510 million in grants to Brown University. Columbia University yielded to several of the ED’s demands relating to how the school handles antisemitism complaints on campus after the department revoked $400 million in funding. 

AAUP and ED did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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