US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to combat antisemitism and pledge to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, a White House official said.

A fact sheet on the order promises “immediate action” by the Justice Department to prosecute “terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews” and marshal all federal resources to combat what it called “the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets” since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in the fact sheet. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathisers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent devastating Israeli onslaught on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses, with civil rights groups documenting rising antisemitic, anti-Arab and Islamophobic incidents.

The order will require agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days on all criminal and civil authorities that could be used to fight antisemitism, and would demand “the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws.”

The fact sheet alleged protesters engaged in pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, blocked Jewish students from attending classes, assaulted worshippers at synagogues and vandalised US monuments and statues.

Many pro-Palestinian protesters denied supporting Hamas or engaging in antisemitic acts and said they were demonstrating against Israel’s military assault on Gaza, where health authorities say more than 47,000 people have been killed, including scores of women and children.

However, on January 15, a ceasefire was announced in the enclave by Qatari and US officials. Since the ceasefire went into effect on January 19, Israel and Hamas have exchanged several captives, with another exchange planned for Thursday.

Since his inauguration, Trump has floated the idea of “clearing out” Gaza and moving Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan, garnering significant backlash.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a large Muslim advocacy group, accused the Trump administration of an assault on “free speech and Palestinian humanity under the guise of combating antisemitism” and described Wednesday’s order as “dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable”.

During his 2024 election campaign, Trump promised to deport those he called “pro-Hamas” students in the United States on visas.

On his first day in office, he signed an executive order that rights groups say lays the groundwork for the reinstatement of a ban on travellers from predominantly Muslim or Arab countries and offers wider authorities to use ideological exclusion to deny visa requests and remove individuals already in the country.

Throughout 2024, student protests reached neighbouring Canada and Europe as well, while academic workers in the US went on strike to protest varsity responses to the protesters.

Tensions flared between pro-Palestinian student protesters and school administrators at several US universities, as in-person classes were cancelled and demonstrators were arrested.