The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is urging universities to withhold information about the identity of protesters from the Trump administration to prevent deportation.
in letter Addressing the colleges and universities on Wednesday, the AAUP warned of the “serious risks and harms” of adhering to the names and nationality requirements of students and staff involved in the protests on anti-Semitic campus. The Trump administration has already deported more than 300 foreign students as it has been involved in demonstrations held on campuses nationwide since 2023.
“News reports revealed that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) requested the names and nationalities of the students and faculty involved as part of an investigation into title VI violations at dozens of universities and universities across the United States,” AAUP wrote. “On behalf of our members and chapters, I write to you to clarify some of the legal implications of complying with the federal government’s request to provide personally identifiable information for students and faculty, and to make it clear that we do not have the legal impulse to comply with such requests.
Police are arrested on May 2, 2024 after destroying part of a camp barricade on the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus.
In February, the government was assembled. A joint task force to combat anti-SemitismED, Department of Justice (DOJ), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The task force said “the number one priority is to eradicate anti-Semitic harassment on schools and university campuses,” and then began a review of schools’ civil rights enforcement compliance.
Ed wrote to 60 universities in February to warn of “potential enforcement measures” if he fails to step up to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination.
The AAUP argues that identifying information about protesters is “unrelated” and that “sharing this information is inconsistent with an institutional commitment to freedom of speech and academic freedom.” Aaup called the deportation of foreign extremists “ice aid” and described foreigners as “victims.”
AAUP also claimed that it would release information regarding students’ violations of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
The Trump administration has withdrawn federal funds from schools that do not comply with federal law and enforcement instructions, and has recently frozen around $210 million at Princeton University over concerns about how it handled anti-Semitism on campus and dealt with a $510 million grant to Brown University. Columbia University has led to several of the ED’s demands related to how schools handle anti-Semitism complaints on campus after the department cancelled $400 million in funding. (Related: Elite universities are targeting students who are trying to reveal where millions of federal funds are heading)
Aaup and Ed did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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