Tipsheet

Tim Scott Says He'd Deport Pro-Hamas Foreign Students

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  November 09, 2023 11:00 AM

As anti-Semitism is alive and well on college campuses, the GOP presidential candidates were asked at the third Republican primary debate how they'd combat anti-Jewish hatred consuming academia among the student body and school administration.

Prompted by NBC News anchor and co-moderator Lester Holt, Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matthew Brooks questioned the narrowed-down field of contenders: "Jewish students across the country are threatened and under attack. What do you say to Jewish students on college campuses who feel unsafe given the dramatic rise in anti-Semitism and what do you to [sic] say to university presidents and college presidents who have not met the moral clarity moment to forcefully condemn Hamas terrorism?"

"Let me just say to every single university president in America: Federal funding is a privilege, not a right. Number one," Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) responded, earning a round of applause. "Number two: To every student who has come to our country on a visa to a college campus, your visa is a privilege, not a right. Number three: Any campus that allows for anti-Semitism and hate—to allow students to encourage terrorism, mass murder, and genocide, you should lose your federal funding today. Period."

"To all of the students on visas who are encouraging Jewish genocide, I would deport you from those campuses," Scott declared.

Scott urged the public to "stand strong" with Jewish Americans. "At the end of the day, we should not have our Jewish students in a library being told to hide..." Scott added, referencing when terrified Jewish students at New York City's Cooper Union College were locked inside an on-campus library and seeking shelter from a mob of Hamas sympathizers pounding on the doors.

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"We must force the people [anti-Semites] off those campuses, and frankly, out of our country," Scott concluded.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) agreed with Scott's stance. "I was the first presidential candidate to say: If you are here on a student visa as a foreign national and you're making common cause with Hamas, I'm canceling your visa and I'm sending you home."

"No questions asked," DeSantis added, drawing cheers from the Miami crowd in his home state of Florida.

This isn't the first time Scott has called for the deportation of international students who support Hamas.

In a segment with Fox News host Neil Cavuto, Scott previously said that students actively advocating for terrorism should be expelled while student-visa holders should be deported. "Anytime you actually encourage the genocide—the elimination of an entire race of people—anytime you support terrorism and encourage murder, there should be consequences," Scott stated.

Likewise, DeSantis vowed to revoke the visas of foreign students "out there praising Hamas, when I'm president."

"I will cancel their visa and I will send them back to their home country," the Florida governor said during an event in Iowa.

Additionally, DeSantis has ordered Florida's university system to "crack down" and dismantle Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a radical pro-Palestine student network whose national leadership backed the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians. 

National SJP released a "toolkit" identifying themselves as "part of" the terrorist-led "movement" they've dubbed "the resistance."

It is a felony under Florida law to "knowingly provide material support [...] to a designated foreign terrorist organization," cited the Oct. 24 memo sent from the State University System (SUS)'s chancellor announcing the directive to deactivate its SJP chapters.