A senior Trump administration official confirmed that following the murder of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington, the US government was planning on intensifying the fight against campus antisemitism.
Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the United States Justice Department, told N12 on Thursday that the administration plans to increase the presence of law enforcement on campuses, expedite and intensify the deportation of international students who take part in antisemitic activities, and tighten economic sanctions against universities.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, staff members at the Israeli embassy, were murdered outside the Jewish Museum in Washington on Wednesday night.
"We are going to intensify all our activities. We will go after the instigators on campuses, and those here on student visas – goodbye. You are here by grace, if you create chaos, crime or discrimination against Jews, you will find yourself out. As for the universities, expect more federal funds to be withdrawn, or all federal funding to be withheld. All of it!" Terrell told N12.
The crackdown on antisemitism will also see, for the first time, lawsuits launched against universities that fail to protect their Jewish students and staff.
"This is a big step – we are in the process of filing lawsuits against universities for violating the Civil Rights Act towards Jews. We have large lawsuits in preparation, and we need to file them immediately. Our strategy is to file the lawsuits first, and then reach agreements. We are increasing the pace of lawsuits," Terrell shared.Terrell also revealed that during past interviews, he had been probed on whether the Trump administration was being too tough on antisemitism – an accusation he categorically denied, given the growing severity and the two murders in Washington yesterday.
Terrell added, "This is a tragic case. This is not going to end in two days. This is bigger than the deaths of two Jewish-Israelis, and it must provoke us to action because it is far beyond the crazy monster that killed them. “We are fighting antisemitism, but it is rampant. It is deep in this country and must be addressed. The shooter is just a puppet, antisemitism is ingrained on campuses and in the media, and these organizations are funded with foreign money. We must stop it – and we will stop it."
Trump administration pushes Columbia University on tackling antisemitism
Speaking specifically about Columbia University, an institution which has faced much press coverage for both the number of severe antisemitic incidents and the university leadership’s response to such incidents, Terrell shared that it was found the university had failed to tackle anti-Jewish hate.
"There was going to be a terrible deal with Columbia University, which would just give them a gift and recognize that they were fighting antisemitism properly,” the official shared. “Columbia tried to reach a deal that would prevent the administration from suing them, and they said they would act properly. They wanted us to sign an agreement that implied that they had acted to solve the problem of antisemitism. But they did nothing," Terrell said, adding: "In the last two weeks, I met with the president and told him we couldn't sign it – and he told me directly that we weren't signing anything. So there's no deal with Columbia yet."
"There will be no deals unless they provide equal religious freedom, and eliminate hate crimes against Jews as they eliminated hate crimes against everyone else. Because of our commitment, we are not reaching deals with these universities – Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern, and the universities on the West Coast," he confirmed.
Since speaking with N12, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the Trump administration revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students, and is forcing existing students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status.
certification, the department said in a statement. Noem accused the university of "fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party."
Harvard said the move by the Trump administration, which affects thousands of students, was illegal and amounted to retaliation.
The clampdown on foreign students marks a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s campaign against the elite Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has emerged as one of Trump's most prominent institutional targets. The move comes after Harvard refused to provide information that Noem had previously demanded about some foreign student visa holders who attend the university, the department said.
“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments," Noem said in a statement.
Reuters contributed to this report.
