The Trump administration is forming a multi-agency task force to fight antisemitism on college campuses, an issue that received national attention last year when several elite universities were taken over by anti-Israel tent encampments.
The task force, which was introduced by the Justice Department on Monday, will include officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education, with other agencies expected to join the effort as time goes on.
“Anti-Semitism in any environment is repugnant to this Nation’s ideals,” said Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell, a former Fox News host who will be leading the task force.
“The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools.”
The launch of the task force comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week directing government agencies to identify additional actions for fighting antisemitism and to create an inventory of civil complaints related to alleged antisemitic activities.
Trump’s order instructs agencies to submit a report detailing steps they could take that go beyond the first Trump administration’s executive order on combating antisemitism, which his latest presidential actions builds on. The president is also telling agencies to develop methods for informing colleges and universities about federal law regarding the admissibility of illegal aliens, in case they commit antisemitic actions that could necessitate deportation.
Trump nominated conservative lawyer and Republican activist Harmeet Dhillon to run the Justice Department’s civil rights division, the unit that would coordinate the task force. Dhillion is strongly opposed to antisemitism on Ivy League campuses and her law firm has underscored its commitment to representing Jewish individuals whose rights may have been violated.
According to an analysis by the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. surged by more than 200 percent after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which was kickstarted by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. On college campuses, there was a 500 percent spike in antisemitic incidents as Jewish hatred and calls for exterminating Israel became commonplace at anti-Israel encampments at colleges and universities around the country.
The movement began with Columbia University’s encampment, which gained national attention in April and ultimately led to protesters ransacking and occupying a campus building once protesters’s negotiations with the school fell through. Columbia subsequently called in the NYPD to break up the encampment and arrest the students and agitators involved with the rioting.
Beyond that, anti-Israel protesters in deep-blue cities held numerous demonstrations that often featured anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, in addition to banners for terrorist organizations.