For anyone watching the news over the past couple of weeks, you have no doubt seen and, in most cases, been outraged by the number of anti-Israel, anti-American students who have taken the side of Hamas terrorists who killed and, in some cases, butchered over 1,000 Israeli citizens.
One person who has been watching and paying attention is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for the Republican nomination for president, according to the New York Post.
“Before the blood was even dry on the Israelis who were massacred, you saw people in our own country on college campuses going out and protesting and cheering on Hamas terrorists,” DeSantis said at an Iowa campaign event Friday.
“Any foreign student on a visa who’s out there praising Hamas, when I’m president, I will cancel their visa and send them back to their home country.”
DeSantis continued:
“I think what this terrorist attack in Israel has shown us is we’re vulnerable from all the people that have come illegally because they come from Iran too,” he said. “It’s not just Mexico and Central America. It’s Russia, China, the Middle East, all that stuff.”
“Some of these people are not U.S. citizens,” he said, referencing those protesting in support of Hamas. “They’re [on] student visas. So, as President, if you’re on a student visa, you’re a foreigner, and you’re out there celebrating terrorism, I’m canceling your visa and sending you home.”
DeSantis also said he supported the decision of some businesses who have voiced their displeasure with the display of pro-Hamas radicals and vowed not to hire students who have engaged in such displays.
Appearing on the Megyn Kelly podcast, DeSantis said he also would not hire such students; however, he expressed more of a concern about “what’s happening inside the walls of the U.S. education system.”
“What the hell is going on in American universities nowadays?” he asked rhetorically.
For example, last week, a student at NYU and several other teens were seen ripping down posters with images of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas in the early October attack.
It’s not only students. A professor at Cornell was slammed after claiming to be “exhilarated” by the Hamas attack on Israel, which included beheadings of young children and a mother who had her unborn child cut out of her womb. She was then shot in the head.
DeSantis contrasted what is going on in today’s colleges and universities to what happened after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, alleging a “sickness” has spread throughout American college campuses, which he said are plagued by a “toxic culture.”
The comments by Gov. DeSantis closely mirror those made by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is attempting to fast-track a resolution providing for revocation of foreign citizens living in the U.S. who avowed support for Hamas or its allies.
Rubio is asking the Senate to approve deportations for those visa holders.
“America is the most generous nation on earth, but we cannot allow foreign nationals who support terrorist groups like Hamas and march in our streets calling for ‘intifada’ to enter or stay in our country,” he told Fox News.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) echoes Rubio’s call for deportation. He is joined by former President Donald Trump, who asked for “strong ideological screening of all immigrants” while suggesting a travel ban from certain countries.
Thus far, over 1,400 Israeli citizens are counted among the dead in the initial Hamas attack. It is estimated some 4,300 have died in the Gaza Strip since Israel began defending itself.
Those protesting on college campuses have also taken to harassing those who try to film the sometimes violent events. According to Campus Reform, protesters at the University of Florida attempted to prevent a student from filming such a protest on Oct. 13.
“I’m scared that speaking about it will be putting an even bigger target on my back than there already is,” said one Florida student of the incident. “[A]ny time a journalist raised a phone or camera, the organizers stopped the event, rushed over to the attendee, and covered the camera with their hands,” the student said.
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