Trump’s xenophobic dream of an immigrant-free America is having a nightmarish effect on foreign students.
The University of Southern California has issued a warning to its foreign students on winter break to return to campus before Trump takes office. As X user Christopher Webb wrote, it’s a “sobering” declaration.
When paired with the rest of Trump’s rhetoric around foreigners residing in the United States, “sobering” may even be an understatement. Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump made increasingly xenophobic statements against undocumented immigrants, culminating in his referral to the undocumented as a group that is “poisoning the blood of our county,” a phrase eerily similar to white supremacist rhetoric that frequently refers to blood as an indicator of “genetic purity.”
While some X users thought USC’s warning was overly cautious, citing student visas as an indicator of student safety, others said the warning should be taken seriously.
Trump famously ordered what critics called a “Muslim ban” during his first term as president. He barred both refugees and travelers from seven Muslim nations from entering the U.S. Citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen were not allowed to enter the U.S. for 90 days, while Syrian refugees were barred in perpetuity. The ban was later repealed by a U.S. appeals court and ruled unconstitutional, but the cultural damage was done.
In the lead-up to the 2024 election, Trump vowed to restore the ban. While campaigning in Washington D.C., Trump told a crowd of supporters “We will bring back the travel ban—you remember the famous travel ban.” He then went on to say that he would bar anyone from “terror-infested areas” from entering the U.S., and promised to “deport the foreign Jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst.” He also specifically said that refugees from Gaza would be targeted by the new ban.
Terrifyingly, Trump’s supporters have echoed the president-elect’s xenophobic statements. In response to the above tweet, an X user expressed hope that Trump would reinstate the ban, saying that America is a “Christian country.”
Other users responded with dismay, while one commented how “horrible” it is that warnings similar to the one issued by USC will become commonplace nationwide.
Sadly, they have been proven right. Northeastern University in Illinois features an FAQ titled “If ICE Comes to Campus” on its website. While the answers in this particular FAQ stress that university employees and students are not required to aid ICE in hunting for immigrants, and in some cases are allowed to impede them, it’s possible universities located in regions less tolerant of the undocumented may adopt a more punitive and hostile approach.
Concerning education, MAGA supporters are shaping their point of view after those of the Republican politicians they champion. Similar to their treatment of the undocumented, the Republican war on education, particularly higher education, has been raging for quite some time. In 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis championed the controversial STOP WOKE Act, which attempted to punish state universities for going so far as to engage in conversation around “woke”-deemed topics such as racial justice and gender identity. Meanwhile, the MAGA-adjacent group Moms For Liberty has brought their battle against education to public schools across the nation for years now, calling for the banning of books that they deem to be antithetical to conservative values.
It is a sad day when foreign students feel unsafe in America, but sadly, that day has come.
Published: Dec 7, 2024 12:07 pm