A new Republican-backed bill proposes sending protesters to Gaza who have been charged and convicted of illegal activities on college campuses after Oct. 7. The proposal would send offenders to Gazan territory for at least six months to perform community service.
"Enough is enough!!!" Republican Rep. Andy Ogles wrote on social media after explaining that the proposal he presented on Wednesday would send "college anti-Israel agitators" to Gaza.
Proud to join @RepOgles to introduce a bill that would send any person charged & convicted for illegal activity on a college campus in Gaza for at least six months.
I am going to bet that these pro-Hamas supporters wouldn’t last a day, but let’s give them the opportunity https://t.co/xUdYee4VqM
— Randy Weber (@TXRandy14) May 8, 2024
Ogles presented another initiative this Wednesday to revoke the visas of foreign college students who have participated in "rioting or unlawful protest." Students would lose their F, J or M permits if they were arrested in "rioting or unlawful protest or who has been arrested while establishing, participating in, or promoting an encampment on the campus of an institution of higher education on or since October 7, 2023," according to a copy obtained by The Daily Caller.
Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan, who backed both proposals, wrote:
If you come to America on a student visa and support a terrorist organization like Hamas, then you are in violation of your visa. We do not need Hamas sympathizers on American soil breaking our laws and influencing our youth to hate America and freedom. You riot on behalf of a… https://t.co/uvs6Vk7kDo
— Rep. Jeff Duncan (@RepJeffDuncan) May 8, 2024
The proposals come after weeks of tension on college campuses across the country, with police intervening at universities such as Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Ohio sends a warning
While Ogles was presenting his two bills in Congress, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost gave an interview to defend his proposal to imprison pro-Palestine protesters who cover themselves with masks, veils or similar clothing.
In conversation with Fox News, he stated that the First Amendment protects citizens from the government, but that "it is not a sword against your fellow students and they have rights too."
Yost warned earlier this week that local legislation establishes that those who commit a minor crime while concealing their identities, in collaboration with two or more people, can spend between six and 18 months in prison. They may also have to pay $5,000 in fines and serve up to five years of community control. The attorney general alluded to an old law, originally used against the Ku Klux Klan.
Yost explained that hiding one's identity behind a piece of clothing is practically admitting that a crime is being committed, as it is an attempt to avoid judicial retaliation.
When MLK and John Lewis marched in Selma, they didn’t wear masks.
Own your opinions and the dictates of your conscience— and don’t break the law.
The First Amendment is a shield against the government, not a sword against your fellow students. https://t.co/X1nBgdqBPT
— Attorney General Dave Yost (@DaveYostOH) May 9, 2024
