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