Long before Democrats and liberal activists accused Trump of trampling on the rights of pro-Hamas visa holders in the U.S., the Biden administration rolled out a visa-restriction policy targeting Israelis that was riddled with political bias and vague language, but received little resistance or protest, a legal expert told Fox News Digital.
“One is a valid judgment,” legal expert and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, Eugene Kontorovich, explained of President Donald Trump’s restrictions and revocations of visas belonging to pro-Hamas students in the U.S.
“The other was just using the visa system to punish one’s political enemies,” he continued of a 2023 Biden visa policy.
The Trump administration is in the midst of working to revoke visas and green cards belonging to pro-Hamas students in the U.S. who participated in the widespread anti-Israel protests and riots that rocked college campuses during the last school year. The effort has been met with backlash from Democrats who say Trump is attacking the First Amendment rights of individuals who protested Israel.
PRO-HAMAS ACTIVIST’S DEPORTATION NOT A ‘FREE SPEECH’ MATTER AND LAW IS ON TRUMP’S SIDE: EXPERTS
Long before Democrats and liberal activists accused Trump of trampling on the rights of pro-Hamas visa holders in the U.S., the Biden administration rolled out a visa-restriction policy targeting Israelis. (Getty Images)
Kontorovich spoke to Fox News Digital Wednesday in a phone interview where he explained that Trump’s actions are not only within his legal bounds but also “far more restrained” than previous administrations’ “politicized visa” policies, including a Biden policy that restricted Israelis.
The Biden administration announced in December 2023, just months after war broke out in Israel on October 7, 2023, that it would restrict visas to those believed to have undermined peace and stability in the West Bank. The restriction was a part…
