Donald Trump’s recent executive order is being seen as a tool of repression against pro-Palestinian student activists, fueling concerns over an intensified crackdown on campus dissent.
A fact sheet accompanying the order, announced last Wednesday, clarifies that it builds on his 2019 directive on anti-Semitism while explicitly threatening student visa holders involved in pro-Palestinian protests with prosecution and deportation. Though framed as a measure against anti-Semitic harassment, the move has alarmed activists, including those from the 2024 University of Washington campus occupation, who view it as a politically driven effort to silence opposition.
The 2024 UW pro-Palestinian campus occupation, which disbanded last May after coming to a mutual agreement with the university, brought together student activists from multiple student-led organizations advocating for Palestinian rights.
For Mish Mish, an anonymous UW graduate student and activist on a visa from Palestine, the order was a cruel reality check. Citing the risk of deportation on campus, she requested anonymity.
“I am not a citizen here. I know my rights in this country are a lot less than what…American citizens have,” she said. “It made me scared in the sense of all of the work I have done here could be just ripped away.”
On top of organizing events for Zaytoon, a Palestinian-led student organization at UW, Mish Mish has studied and worked at the university for three years as a teaching assistant. While the order was terrifying when first announced, she has since come to a level of acceptance.
“If I get deported, I get deported. At this point in time, I’ve kind of become a bit laissez-faire with,” she said through somber laughter. “If it happens, at least it was for something worth it in my mind.”
Despite the threat of Trump’s mass deportation efforts across the country, Zaytoon continues to fundraise scholarship money for Gazan students and host events celebrating Palestinian culture, according to Mish Mish.
Adjacent to Zaytoon is Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a student organization partially responsible for the encampment last spring.
Mathieu Chabaud, a 21-year-old student affiliated with SDS said the order came with no surprise.
“What the Trump administration wants us to feel is to feel isolated, but we know our power comes from being a community with each other and from being in the streets,” Chabaud said. “They want us to stay home, they want us to feel afraid. Let’s not give them what they want.”
Chabaud referenced another UW-based organization, Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return (SUPER), that was suspended from its title as a registered student organization (RSO) by the university on December 13, 2024. SUPER was partly responsible for organizing the pro-Palestinian encampment that occupied the quad from April 29 to May 20, 2024.
Despite their suspension, SUPER has remained active in their support of Palestine, hosting pro-resistance events and political education teach-ins on the UW campus and across Seattle.
“I think this [order] really shows that our work and our fight has been working,” said a UW graduate student and organizer for SUPER who asked to remain anonymous. “They’re scared. They wouldn’t be calling for this if they weren’t scared. This really just goes to show how us uniting together and fighting for Palestine is important.”
The possibility of ICE Raids on the UW campus is a significant threat in Chabaud’s view that he called for clear guidance and procedures to be given to UW staff members, workers, and students in the event of raids. But his faith in the university’s ability to take significant action to protect students was minimal, criticizing a recent statement from President Ana Mari Cauce addressing immigration officials as “spineless.”
“As we continue to organize, we have to make these demands of the university administration and make it clear that they’re standing on their asses right now. It’s time to get off of that and it’s time to actually protect your students,” Chabaud said.
Victor Balta, the Assistant Vice President for Communications & UW Spokesperson, responded to questions about the administration’s stance on supporting students’ rights in response to the order, saying he had nothing to add to the UW’s antisemitism and Islamophobia task force reports announced in November.
“We are reviewing the executive order to determine what direct impact it may have on the UW,” Balta said in an email. “The order notes that further guidance is forthcoming, therefore the potential effect is not yet clear. We will continue to closely monitor the situation.”
The university’s Office of the Provost updated their Federal Policy Updates the night of the order’s issue, directly addressing Trump’s string of executive orders. The university said that “any actual adjustments to our activities will be based on specific information rather than speculation on our compliance responsibilities,” describing the situation as “fluid” and “uncertain.”
Student activists were unsurprised by the UW’s vague and unactionable response, citing the university’s extensive failure to protect students on visas including but not limited to scheduling an ICE recruitment event on campus and allowing right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to spread his racist agenda at the encampment last spring. They demand that UW fights to keep ICE and the Department of Homeland Security off of campus and to cut ties with companies like Boeing labeled as complicit in the genocide.
With safety in mind, Mish Mish urged the community to get involved with grassroots movements in any way possible and to keep an open mind around non-citizen demographics facing the all too real threat of deportation just for fighting for their rights.
“Palestinians aren’t just death and despair compared to what you see in the media,” she said. “We are a group of people that have a beautiful culture and I would highly recommend a lot of people learn about Palestinian culture as well as learn about how Palestinians continue to fight.”
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story stated that SUPER hosted anti-Trump events. The events were not specific to the administration, but were generally critical of the United States' ongoing policies. It also stated that SUPER was "largely" responsible for the school's pro-Palestinian encampment. However, they were part of a larger coalition that organized the demonstration.
