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Merrick Garland MIA During Campus Upheavals

By Joe Guzzardi

Last week, amid nationwide student protesting that threatened Jewish students and effectively shut down college campuses, 27 GOP U.S. Senators sent Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona a letter urging them to restore order and shut down the antisemitic, pro-Palestine mobs. The letter requested an April 24 update that detailed the steps that the AG’s office would take to restore campus order and allay the Jewish students’ fear for their safety.

From the Senators’ letter: “You need to take action to restore order and protect Jewish students on our college campuses. President Biden issued a statement on Sunday, purporting to condemn the outbreak of anti-Semitism. If that statement was serious, it must be accompanied by immediate action from your departments.” They continued: “Rioting violates federal law. Violence or attempted violence against anyone because of their Jewish heritage violates federal law. School administrators’ failure to protect Jewish students from discrimination or harassment violates federal law and is grounds for those schools losing access to federal funds. Espousing support for terrorists such as Hamas violates federal immigration law and is grounds for deportation.”

A week after the April 24 deadline, the senators have not received a formal reply, and the criminal protests have accelerated. Cardona is Puerto Rican and may not have as strong a commitment to resolving the campus crimes as the Jewish Garland whose indifference is inexplicable. At a House Judiciary Committee hearing last year, Garland emotionally testified that the Department of Justice’s function is to provide equal protection to all. He then tearfully shared the story that two of his grandmother’s siblings were Holocaust murder victims. The protection of the law provided equally to all, Garland continued passionately, is what makes America great, and what saved his immigrant grandmother’s life when the U.S. took her in. “Under the protection of our laws, she was able to live without fear of persecution,” Garland concluded. Garland’s refusal to actively support is a sign that Biden has intimidated him. But principled AGs stand up for what they believe in.

Last November, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, (R-Florida), urged Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, the stepson of a Holocaust survivor, to revoke the visas of agitators who support Hamas. In his statement, Rubio reminded Democrats that a visa is not a constitutional right but rather temporary permission for foreign nationals to visit the U.S. After Rubio filed a motion to deport terrorist sympathizers, Senate Democrats blocked it. President Biden also rejected Rubio’s suggestion and instead extended protections to “some Palestinians” from deportations.

Biden’s remarks regarding Palestinians’ protections are telling, and consistent with his open borders policy. The president said he has determined that with some exceptions “it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to defer for 18 months the removal of any Palestinian subject.” First, Biden did not explain the thought process that led to his conclusion that “the foreign policy interest of the United States” is advanced by the non-removal of Palestinian subjects. Second, U.S. presidents do not have the constitutional authority to determine which foreign nationals remain and which must be removed. Third, Biden pressed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to reward with work permission Palestinian “non-citizens whose removal has been deferred.” Biden then pressed the secretary “to consider suspending regulatory requirements with respect to F-1 non-immigrant students who are Palestinians,” presumably a recommendation that students be granted employment authorization, an affirmative benefit that their visa forbids. Mayorkas does not have the sole authority to defer deportation or to grant work permission to non-immigrant visa holders or visa overstayers. Congress, not the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority over immigration. Finally, more foreign-born authorized workers depress native Americans’ job opportunities; since 2019, all the net job growth has gone to immigrants.

Biden’s sweeping statement for Palestinian protections could include rabblerousing students who may be present on F-1 visas. The non-immigrant student visa is a program that allows international students to study at American universities, with the understanding that after graduation, they will return home to use their U.S. degree to improve their native countries’ quality of life. Many, however, overstay their visas, and because of the relative ease with which foreign graduates of U.S. colleges may remain in the U.S. and seek employment, recent American graduates frequently compete with their foreign peers for jobs. Because employers view corporate diversity as positive, they give preference to international candidates over equally qualified Americans. In FY 2022, an estimated 850,000 visa holders, including 55,023 student and exchange visitors who overstayed.

The F-1 visa is an unwieldy program that has no annual limit on incoming students. For the 2022/2023 academic year, 1,057, 188 international students were enrolled in U.S. universities including 19,001 at Columbia, the epicenter of the ongoing student chaos. To help assure a safe and orderly academic environment, the State Department must review the F-1 visa, impose an annual numerical total that does not exceed 500,000, and work with DHS to institute a vigorous post-graduate enforcement policy to ensure that students return home when their visas expire.

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Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@ifspp.org

Merrick Garland MIA During Campus Upheavals