Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Monday announced a bill that would prevent student loan forgiveness eligibility for anyone convicted of a state or federal offense in connection to a college campus protest.
A news release from Cruz says the No Bailouts for Campus Criminals Act is legislation “preventing any rioter or violent protestor on college campuses convicted of a crime from having their student loans forgiven.”
The bill comes in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country. Cruz’s news release calls them “antisemitic.”
“Students who have been convicted of a crime for engaging in the vicious riots on college campuses across the country should be held accountable for their actions,” Cruz said. “It’s innately un-American for taxpayers to be paying off their federal student loan debts when they have caused chaos and committed crimes on college campuses because they support Hamas terrorists.”
Co-sponsors of the bill include Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., among many others.
“The Biden Administration’s student loan relief schemes are unfair and irresponsible—forcing hardworking Americans to pay off debts they never agreed to take on—and I introduced the Student Loan Accountability Act in 2022 to block these schemes. But no one should especially support a taxpayer bailout for students who engage in the criminal behavior we’re seeing on college campuses across the nation right now,” Romney said.
Since April 17, more than 2,400 protesters have been arrested on 46 campuses nationwide. Tent encampments and building takeovers have disrupted classes at some schools, including Columbia and UCLA.
Protesters have called for colleges and universities to divest from weapons manufacturers that are supplying Israel amid its war with Hamas.
Israel has called the protests antisemitic; its critics say the country uses such allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters were caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers — some of whom are Jewish — have called it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.
The movement began April 17 at Columbia, where student protesters built an encampment to call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive after Oct. 7, when Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel.
