Executive Summary
On January 29, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order
14188 (EO 14188 or the EO), "Additional Measures to Combat
Anti-Semitism." EO 14188 declares: "It shall be the
policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously,
using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute,
remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful
anti-Semitic harassment and violence."
Although EO 14188 reaffirms an executive order President Trump
issued during his first term on this same topic (Executive Order 13899), the new EO goes
further in two respects. First, EO 14188 cites the October 7, 2023
Hamas terror attacks in Israel as "unleash[ing] an
unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism,
and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on
our campuses." Second, the EO and its accompanying Fact Sheet, dated January 30, 2025 (the Fact
Sheet), outline measures that executive departments, federal
agencies, and institutions of higher education must take to combat
antisemitism, with particular attention to monitoring and reporting
"aliens" who support, or persuade others to support,
terrorist activity or terrorist organizations.
On the heels of the EO, a number of federal agencies have taken a
variety of serious steps to implement it by focusing on the conduct
of various colleges and universities, as well as individual
students and faculty affiliated with those institutions. This
Advisory summarizes those developments and highlights the key
takeaways from EO 14188.
Developments Since January 29, 2025
The Trump administration's initial steps to implement EO 14188 have involved several departments:
- The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has opened investigations into five universities "where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported" and has sent letters to an additional 55 universities that are under investigation for antisemitic harassment and discrimination "in response to complaints filed with OCR."
- The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has established a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, which announced, on February 28, 2025, that it will be "visiting 10 university campuses that have experienced antisemitic incidents since October 2023" to determine "whether remedial action is warranted."
- Although both DOE's and DOJ's announcements included Columbia University among their targets, the Trump administration did not wait for those investigations to proceed before taking action against that institution:
- On March 7, 2025, the Task Force announced "the immediate cancelation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the school's continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."
- The administration then sent a letter requiring the university to comply with a number of enforcement, disciplinary, and remedial measures by March 20, 2025 to "return Columbia to its original mission of innovative research and academic excellence."
- On March 14, 2025, the Trump administration terminated an additional $30 million in grants to the university.
Columbia quickly took steps to comply with many of the government's demands:
- On March 13, 2025, "the Columbia University Judicial Board determined findings and issued sanctions to students ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions related to the occupation of Hamilton Hall last spring."
- And on March 21, 2025, Columbia committed to, among other things: (1) prohibit individuals from wearing "face masks or face coverings" "for the purpose of concealing one's identity in the commission of violations of University policies or state, municipal, or federal laws"; (2) "appoint[] a new Senior Vice Provost" to conduct a thorough review of the university's "portfolio of programs in regional areas" ("starting immediately with the Middle East") and "steward the creation of new programs to address the full range of fields"; (3) "review [the university's] admissions practices ... and make recommendations to the President and Provost about how to improve them and ensure unbiased admission processes," especially in light of "a recent downturn in both Jewish and African American enrollment"; and (4) adopt the "definition of antisemitism recommended by Columbia's Antisemitism Taskforce in August 2024." Each of those commitments, as well as others undertaken by the university, will warrant serious review by other institutions.
- Columbia was not the only institution on which the administration immediately focused. On March 17, 2025, DOJ filed a Statement of Interest in support of the plaintiffs in Frankel et al. v. Regents of the University of California et al., Case No. 2:24-cv-04702-MCS (C.D. Cal. 2024). In that litigation, three Jewish students and a Jewish professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) asserted several causes of action against the university, alleging they were excluded from portions of UCLA's campus during a pro-Palestinian encampment "because they refused to denounce their faith" and support for the Jewish state of Israel. DOJ's position is that UCLA has been supporting antisemitism on campus.
The Trump administration's actions have not been limited to institutions themselves:
- On March 9, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate and green-card holder, for "[leading] activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization."
- Additional non-citizen Columbia University students, a Brown University professor, and a Georgetown University graduate student have also been arrested, detained, or deported for their alleged ties to Hamas or support for terrorism.
Finally, the administration is using other executive orders to reinforce its message about combatting antisemitism:
- On March 14, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order that threatened to take a variety of measures against Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. In exchange for the withdrawal of the executive order, the law firm agreed to, among other things, provide $40 million of pro bono legal services to support the Trump administration's initiatives, such as assisting the president's Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. The agreement does not specify, however, what role the law firm will play in those efforts.
Summary of Key EO 14188 Provisions
1. Removing "perpetrators of unlawful
anti-Semitic harassment and violence": EO 14188
makes clear the Trump administration's intent to use U.S.
immigration laws to bar and remove non-citizens — including
student protestors and others — who endorse Hamas or the acts
of terrorism on October 7, 2023. The Fact Sheet explains the
president's goal quite explicitly: "The Order demands the
removal of resident aliens who violate our laws." It also
warns those "resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist
protests": "we will find you, and we will deport you. I
will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas
sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with
radicalism like never before."
Of particular significance to colleges and universities, EO 14188
aims to achieve that goal by directing the relevant agencies to
recommend ways to "familiariz[e] institutions of higher
education with the grounds for inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C
1182(a)(3)." Among other things, this statute provides that
any "alien" who "endorses or espouses terrorist
activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist
activity or support a terrorist organization" is
"ineligible" to receive a visa and cannot be admitted to
the United States. Similarly, the EO makes clear that such
"aliens," if already in the United States, must be
deported.
EO 14188 stands in stark contrast to the immigration policies of
the Biden administration, which limited ICE's authority to
conduct arrests, interviews, searches, and surveillance at or near
"sensitive locations," including schools. In that way, EO
14188 goes beyond requiring additional measures to combat
antisemitism: it also reinforces the Trump administration's
immigration policy that schools, among other "sensitive
locations," are no longer afforded "semi-sanctuary"
status.
2. Reporting, Monitoring at Institutions of Higher
Education: Of potentially even more significance to
colleges and universities, EO 14188 also directly enlists the
assistance of institutions of higher education by requiring them to
"monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff
relevant" to the grounds enumerated in 8 U.S.C 1182(a)(3).
Those institutions must ensure their "reports about aliens
lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to
investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such
aliens," pursuant also to 8 U.S.C. 1227. The EO does not,
however, provide any guidance as to how colleges and universities
are to fulfill these new obligations or how the Trump
administration will measure their compliance.
3. Other Reporting Requirements of Executive
Departments and Federal Agencies: Finally, EO 14188
gives "each executive department or agency" until March
30, 2025 to submit a report "identifying all civil and
criminal authorities or actions" within that department's
or agency's jurisdiction that it may use to "curb or
combat anti-Semitism." Each must also provide "an
inventory and analysis of all pending administrative
complaints" "against or involving institutions of higher
education alleging civil-rights violations related to or arising
from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism." In other
words, the focus on colleges and universities will only
increase.
Looking Ahead
Like President Trump's other executive orders, EO 14188 does
not purport to change any existing laws. But it does directly
portend a meaningful uptick in enforcement action by the federal
government. It will also likely lead to litigation on First
Amendment, due process, and other grounds. For example, Mahmoud
Khalil is challenging his detention, and at least one
other lawsuit has been filed by Cornell University students
(one of whom DOJ has asked to surrender to ICE) seeking a temporary
restraining order and/or a preliminary injunction to prevent
enforcement of EO 14188 and another recent executive order.
Institutions of higher education across the country are also now on
notice that the Trump administration will likely use all the tools
at its disposal to dig deeper into how those institutions responded
to the wave of campus unrest that followed the October 7, 2023
Hamas attacks. It also appears that the Trump administration
intends to rely on academic institutions to police whether
non-citizens on those institutions' campuses are engaging in
conduct that warrants or justifies their deportation. It is
imperative that universities conduct thorough reviews of their
internal policies, practices, and procedures to ensure that they
appropriately address antisemitism on campus. In addition to the
administration's recent actions, we expect continued
congressional scrutiny relating to campus antisemitism matters,
which will include congressional oversight hearings, potential
further investigations, and legislative activity.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
