President Donald Trump sent a clear message to public universities on Monday: Stamp out anti-Semitic behavior on campus or kiss federal funding goodbye. As a result, at least 60 universities now find themselves in the hot waters of federal investigation for “antisemitic discrimination and harassment.”

The hammer dropped on Monday when Trump’s Department of Education (DOE) announced their full-throttle strike against “pro-terrorist” activity on campuses. In a statement, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said, “The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year.” She added that “U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege, and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws.”

Ultimately, the statement urged university leaders to “do better.”

Meanwhile, the 60 universities in question all received letters from DOE’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), warning them that they could face legal consequences if they fail to “fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.” Some of the colleges involved include Ivy League schools such as Columbia University, Harvard University, Brown University, as well as state schools like the University of Michigan and University of Virginia.

Columbia, in particular, has already received a major blow from the Trump administration. On Friday, preceding the administration’s big announcement, Columbia lost $400 million in federal grant funding. In addition to this, the administration sought to deport Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil — an anti-Israel activist who attended the university on a green card. This move, however, was blocked by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman on Monday, and a hearing is now scheduled for Wednesday.

Despite the hinderance, the Trump administration said these actions were a direct result of “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” And in a thunderous Truth Social post on Monday, President Trump announced:

“Following my previously signed Executive Orders, ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it. … If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply. Thank you!”

Khalil’s arrest led to pro-Palestinian protests in the streets of Manhattan. Before the judge’s decision, hundreds had rallied in Federal Plaza in New York City demanding Khalil be released. The New York Civil Liberties Union said this was an “extreme attack on his First Amendment rights.” However, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan responded sharply to the backlash: “[D]id he violate the terms of his visa? Did he violate the terms of his residency here? You know, committing crimes … attacking Israeli students, locking down buildings, destroying property. … Any resident alien who commits a crime is eligible for deportation.”

Adding to this, Homan asserted that Khalil’s arrest is likely to be “one out of many.” As he went on to explain, it’s a “great privilege” to be a student in America, and “when we give you that right to study in this country, don’t violate our laws.” The message Homan is giving to students studying under a foreign visa is clear: “[You’re given] a right to come to the greatest country on earth and study in our colleges, but when you come here to study, [you’ve] gotta obey the laws of this country. You gotta obey the requirements of that visa to be lawful while you’re here.”

Homan’s comments were also backed up by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who confirmed over the weekend that the Trump administration will revoke green cards and visas “of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” And during Tuesday’s “Washington Watch,” Family Research Council’s Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies, stated that the swelling of the anti-Semitic movement “really starts at the top when you look at the president and the previous administration [who] fostered that environment.”

“And now,” she continued, “you look at what this administration is doing. They’re saying, ‘We’re not going to tolerate it.” FRC President Tony Perkins agreed, emphasizing that “leadership matters.” And as Kilgannon noted, “Columbia University … lost $400 million in grant money because the American taxpayer is not obligated to … send their hard-earned money to elite universities who are going to violate the civil rights of students, particularly Jewish students. That’s not something that we’re obligated to do.”

Perkins went on to explain how, if a university wants to keep “the large amounts of money that they're sitting on,” then “they need to straighten up and fly right.” Or as Kilgannon put it, “They need to follow the rules. They need to have a campus that’s not a hostile environment for students of any faith. They ought to be held to a standard of conduct that is in keeping with the American public funding.” Overall, she concluded, “there ought to be a standard.”