A professor at Yale University said Monday he would be leaving his post and the country over the Trump administration’s “brutal attack” on free speech.
“The message is that they’re going to do a kind of stochastic terrorism against our country,” Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy with a focus on fascism, told MSNBC.
“They’re going to target people one by one so that those who are in fear will shut up, essentially,” Stanley added.
President Trump has launched broad ideological attacks on America's colleges and universities, seeking to ban diversity initiatives, cracking down on transgender athlete policies and threatening the immigration status of multiple foreign-born students and professors.
Schools including the University of Maine, University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University have had their funding targeted by the administration, with Columbia quickly rolling over and acquiescing to Trump's demands.
Stanley said the administration’s push to urge people to remain silent about their views is working and impacting on-campus communities across the country.
“Universities are filled with fear already. They’re ceasing to make public statements. They’re not banding together,” he said.
“Right now they’re targeting noncitizens for, you know, writing in student newspapers.”
Lawmakers have weighed in on efforts to remove Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old lawful permanent resident, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia and penned an op-ed supporting her views in the school paper.
“Trump is trying to deport a Columbia Univ. student who has been a permanent resident in the U.S. since she was 7. Her ‘crime’? Attending a protest against the war in Gaza,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said of the incident.
“No, Mr. President. This is a democracy. You can't exile political dissidents. Not in the United States.”
Despite pushback from Democrats, Trump’s Cabinet officials have moved forward with deportation efforts at full force while fighting against court orders blocking removals.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week he has revoked at least 300 student visas over the pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
“We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio said.
“I hope at some point we run out because we have gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”
