College newspaper deletes names, photos of pro-Palestinian protesters

• Purdue University’s student newspaper is protesting President Trump’s executive order that cancels the visas of foreign students supporting Hamas during pro-Palestinian protests. The editorial board is removing student names and images from all past articles and will not publish such information in the future.
• The editorial board called the executive order a violation of First Amendment rights and vowed to protect the identities of affected students.
• President Trump defends the order as necessary to combat antisemitic acts on campuses, warning that Hamas sympathizers will be deported in 2025.

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Purdue University’s student newspaper, The Exponent, is protesting President Donald Trump’s executive order. Trump’s order is aimed at canceling the visas of foreign students promoting Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, during pro-Palestinian protests.

The editorial board announced it will no longer publish the names or images of pro-Palestinian students who may be impacted by the executive order. The newspaper will also review all articles published since Oct. 7, 2023, and remove students’ names and photos.

Statement from The Exponent’s editorial board

In a letter, the editorial board wrote, “The Exponent, as a member of the press and — more importantly — a student publication, refuses to be party to such a blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of potentially hundreds of Purdue students.”

“We will never be able to stop such an assault backed by the might of the federal government,” the letter continued. “But purdueexponent.org will no longer be a place where that government will be able to find the names of its targets.”

Language from Trump’s executive order

President Trump has said the executive order is necessary to combat the growing wave of antisemitic acts on college campuses.

In a fact sheet on the order, he stated, “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. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”