GOP candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday said he would revoke student visas of Hamas sympathizers if elected to the White House in 2024.
“You see students demonstrating in our country in favor of Hamas,” DeSantis said during a campaign stop in Iowa. “Remember, some of them are foreigners.”
The governor said if elected for president, he will be “canceling your visa and I’m sending you home.”
Fellow GOP presidential hopeful Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), at the same event, said he would withhold Pell Grants from universities that failed to stamp out antisemitism.
The presidential contenders were speaking at a campaign event in Iowa where each iterated their support for Israel in its war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Florida Governor’s comments, first reported by the New York Times, come after he has been a loud voice against Hamas and its surprise attack on Israel earlier this month.
In the past two weeks DeSantis has looked to impose new sanctions on Iranian businesses in Florida, charter flights of Floridians back from Israel and provide support to the Middle Eastern nation with aid in its war against Hamas.
DeSantis has called pro-Palestine protests a “total disgrace” and been against the United States accepting refugees from Gaza.
“I don’t know what [President] Biden’s gonna do, but we cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,” DeSantis said earlier this month.
“I am not going to do that,” he added. “If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”
Scott has also been outspoken against President Biden’s response to the Hamas attacks, saying the president has “blood on his hands.”
The conflict began on Oct. 7 when Hamas — which controls the Gaza Strip — launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing about 1,400 Israelis and took more than 200 people hostage. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate until all of the hostages were released.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said responding strikes from Israel have so far killed nearly 4,300 Palestinians.