President Donald Trump’s Department of Education announced it will examine anti-Semitism cases at five universities, the latest major development in the administration’s campaign against anti-Semitism.
The Department of Education announced the investigations in a Monday press release, saying it has begun scrutinizing institutions “where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported,” specifically, the Universities of Columbia, Northwestern, Portland State, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
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These investigations will specifically examine whether the universities in question have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, “which protects students from discrimination and harassment based on national origin, including shared ancestry.”
Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said: “Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year, driving Jewish life and religious expression underground. The Biden Administration’s toothless resolution agreements did shamefully little to hold those institutions accountable.”
“Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses, nor will it stand by idly if universities fail to combat Jew hatred and the unlawful harassment and violence it animates,” he concluded.
The Department of Education’s announcement comes after Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.”
The order mobilizes the executive branch to fight back against anti-Semitism, and calls on executive department leaders to generate reports “containing 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.”
The order could also lead to the deportation of students who have expressed pro-terrorist rhetoric or participated in pro-terrorist activities.
Also on Monday, the Department of Justice revealed the creation of a “Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism” whose “first priority will be to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
