Presidential hopeful Tim Scott on Wednesday called for the deportation of foreign students at US colleges who are “encouraging Jewish genocide” as Israel wages war against Hamas after its deadly surprise attack.
“When we have students on campuses that are actually encouraging Jewish genocide, who are advocating for murder and supporting terrorism, those students should be expelled from the campus and those folks who are on visa should be taken – deported from our country,” the Republican South Carolina senator told Fox News host Neil Cavuto.
“Anytime you actually encourage for the genocide, the elimination of entire race of people, anytime you support terrorism, and encourage murder, there should be consequences,” Scott added. “It should be consequences for those students, and it should be consequences for those universities.”
A number of Republicans have called for the revoking of visas belonging to foreign citizens living in the US who support Hamas or its allies in the wake of the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of Scott’s 2024 GOP presidential primary rivals, vowed last week to cancel the visas of any foreign students “out there praising Hamas, when I’m president.”
“I will cancel their visa and I will send them back to their home country,” he said during an event in Iowa.
DeSantis has also ordered Florida’s university system to “crackdown” and dismantle Students for Justice in Palestine, a radical pro-Palestinian student group whose national leadership backed Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have both separately called on the Biden administration to deport all foreign nationals, not just students, who have expressed support for Hamas and other terror groups, citing US immigration laws which deem foreigners ineligible for entry into the US if they “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.”
More than 1,400 Israelis were killed in Hamas’ attack and more than 4,300 have died in Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s war to rid the narrow strip of land of terrorists.
Israel’s war has sparked protests on college campuses across the country, with some students expressing support for Palestinian terror groups in the battle and blaming Israel for the Oct. 7 massacre.