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Five Jewish Democratic senators have sent a strongly worded letter to Donald Trump condemning his administration’s “assault on universities” and questioning whether actions taken against higher education institutions are truly aimed at combating antisemitism.
The letter – signed by Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, and senators Jacky Rosen, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff and Brian Schatz – accuses the administration of using “a real crisis as a pretext to attack people and institutions who do not agree with you”.
“We are extremely troubled and disturbed by your broad and extra-legal attacks against universities and higher education institutions as well as members of their communities, which seem to go far beyond combating antisemitism,” write the senators, who devote much of their attention to the freezing of $2bn in federal funding for Harvard University.
Some Jewish advocacy leaders welcomed the senators’ intervention.
“It’s good news that these senators are standing up to the hypocrisy of this White House,” said Hadar Susskind, president and CEO of New Jewish Narrative. “President Trump is exploiting very real concerns about antisemitism as a foil for his attacks on universities.”
An open letter last updated 20 April from 800 Jewish professors, scholars and students similarly admonished the Trump administration for targeting Columbia University and threatening other schools, saying that “the cuts did nothing to protect Jews, and in fact, could be used to target them”.
While the letter primarily focuses on funding cuts and financial penalties, it only makes a passing reference to the visa revocations and Trump’s deportation campaign that have upended the lives of international students across the country, and the senators do not specifically condemn the detention of students.
Their questions come amid a widening immigration crackdown that has affected more than 1,100 students at 174 colleges and universities who have had their visas revoked or legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review.
Many affected students have never been charged with crimes. In one case, a Tufts University doctoral candidate, Rümeysa Öztürk, was handcuffed by federal agents on a Massachusetts street, shrieking in fear as shown in widely circulated surveillance footage. The former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil and current student Mohsen Mahdawi, both permanent residents, are fighting deportation after being arrested in March and April, respectively.
Twelve national Jewish organizations, including J Street and T’ruah, condemned the Trump administration’s detention of Khalil in March, warning that using antisemitism as justification for suppressing political dissent threatens both Jewish safety and democracy.
More than 200 Israeli academics similarly signed an open letter last week accusing Trump of “fostering anti-Jewish sentiment” by targeting students and “weaponizing Jewish students’ safety as grounds to silence, harass, suspend, punish, or deport pro-Palestinian members of US academia.”
The Trump administration has defended its actions, claiming in some high-profile cases that students were “engaged in activities in support of Hamas” without providing specific evidence. A state department post on Facebook in March warned: “We continuously check visa holders to ensure they follow all US laws and immigration rules – and we will revoke their visas and deport them if they don’t.”
Susskind said Jews should be skeptical of the administration’s rhetoric on antisemitism.
“American Jews are not fools. We’ve watched Trump cozy up to antisemites for years. We see Jew haters serving in prominent roles in this administration,” Susskind added.
The senators requested answers to a list of questions by 30 April, including details on the criteria used to target specific institutions and an explanation for the 50% reduction in staff at the Department of Education’s office of civil rights.
Legal challenges to the visa revocations have seen mixed results, with federal judges in several states issuing temporary restraining orders in some cases while denying similar requests in others.
“This Senate letter is an important move to unmask Trump’s cynicism,” Susskind said. “We need to see more such efforts, otherwise the costs – in terms of free speech and the safety of Jews – will only mushroom.”
