US Jewish group targets anti-Israel protesters in hopes Trump will deport them

Members of the US branch of the Betar Zionist movement are trying a new tack against anti-Israel protesters on college campuses, using artificial intelligence facial recognition technology to identify foreign students involved in the protests in the hope that President-elect Donald Trump will eventually deport them from the United States.

“College campuses have effectively become war zones” since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists in Gaza launched their war on Israel, said Ross Glick, executive director of Betar US.

“Even many of the protesters engaging in peaceful activities are part of a front for groups that are trying to undermine America and Israel,” he said. “We believe in freedom of speech, but if a foreign student is here on a visa, they don’t have the same rights as others to protest or promote anti-Zionist narratives.”

The US office of Betar, a right-wing movement founded in 1923 by Zeev Jabotinsky, has amassed a large repository of video footage from college protests over the past year, Glick said. A team of professionals is using facial recognition software and relationship databases to identify foreign students appearing in the videos.

“This takes many hours of work,” Glick said, describing a process that includes analyzing matching faces identified on video with a person’s online footprint, building a profile and dossier, and analyzing whether there are enough signs to indicate that the person should be reported.

So far, Glick said, they have created a list of dozens of students from Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as several Arab countries, identified at top schools like Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

“The next step,” Glick said, “is waiting until Trump’s inauguration on January 20 to hand over the information.”

Ross Glick (Courtesy)

While US citizens are entitled under the First Amendment to express pro-Hamas or anti-Israel views, Trump has promised to deport students with foreign visas who demonstrate against democratic values.

“When I am president we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals,” Trump said at a rally in May. “If you come from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or antisemitism to our campuses we will immediately deport you. You’ll be out of that school.”

The Republican party also included a commitment to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again” on a list of 20 promises made in the party platform adopted at its National Convention in July.

The legality of expelling foreign nationals from the United States for participating in a protest has not yet been tested, but the move would likely be extremely controversial.

It is not clear how many foreign students have been involved in the protests, but sources said in August that only four foreign students were known to have been arrested, expelled, or barred from graduating due to their participation in protests since the war began.

But Glick was optimistic that the incoming administration will bring change. Betar has been working with pro-Israel Congress members, including senators Ted Cruz and John Fetterman, in order to ensure that efforts to round up suspects begin as soon as the incoming president takes office, he said.

“This information will have to be validated by the legal authorities before any action can be taken,” Glick said. “We’re just doing the work to give the Trump team a head start when they start work in January.”

In addition to compiling its list, Betar is active in a number of pro-Israel activities on college campuses, including organizing counter-protests and providing free legal support to people arrested for supporting Israel.

“We’re not a militant organization, but we will show up if there are people threatening Jews, and we will fight back,” Glick said.