The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a National Terrorism Advisory System warning. This concerns the potential risks to civilians that could arise from sleeper cells within any domestic institution. Several of our universities—especially elite universities—have been protecting thousands of unknown illegal border invaders, with legal assistance services administered through their law schools, and providing housing, funds, and procedural defenses to their immediate deportation. (Jared Gould, Managing Editor of Minding the Campus has been reporting on this matter: “A New ‘Ellis Island’: U.S. Colleges and Universities Defy Immigration Enforcement” and “Biden-Harris Funneled Tax Cash to Illegals’ Education—Trump ED Says Citizens First.”) This has to stop immediately.
Moreover, affiliated university institutions often contribute to the erosion of campus security through their alignment with progressive ideology and political activism, including, as the DHS memo notes, the adoption of systematic and irrational anti-Semitism. These institutions frequently fund and actively indoctrinate students, fueling partisan campus protests. An example is the Obama Center, located within the University of Chicago campus area, which creates a heightened ignition source of reactionary unrest that universities may not fully appreciate. The Obama Foundation has been accused of inciting riots, property destruction, and, in a recent investigative book, likened to a criminal gang.
When politically aligned city and state governments openly defy the Trump administration’s deportation orders and other national security measures—acting as sanctuary jurisdictions and resistance hubs led by mayors and governors in states like Illinois, California, and New York—they create conditions that university administrators neither fully grasp nor control. In this environment, universities risk becoming focal points—or even “ground zero”—for Iranian state-sponsored disruption. Select partisan federal courts have further contributed by blocking White House efforts to restrict the entry of certain foreign students and actors. The Harvard case stands as a prime example.
[RELATED: Are Iran’s Biggest Fans in Our Universities?]
U.S. national security efforts and international military operations are creating the conditions for domestic political opposition that the progressive left actively seeks, driven by a doctrine rooted in extremism and civil unrest. University administrations must adopt a new approach—one that fully acknowledges the level of risk their campuses may pose as the U.S. and its allies engage in active war. This requires full institutional alignment with national security interests, effectively operating under laws of war.
An important point to keep in mind is that for universities, especially, this problem is a psychological one, rooted in a classic cognitive failure known as the “normalization of deviancy.” An example may help. In aviation and aerospace accident investigation, including major catastrophes such as the space shuttle Challenger explosion, details emerged that the chain of events leading to a major accident occur in small, nearly indiscernible stages, but also, that this chain of mistakes is accepted as “normal,” or as acceptable risk, and is then institutionally “normalized.”
This phenomenon can be seen on our university campuses where anti-Semitism is normalized as free speech, and even falls under the blanket “academic freedom,” where faculty and student speech, and any and all speech acts, are encouraged as a principle of education. The risk of such irrationalism is twofold in the university: it disguises actual causal factors in social problems by blindly assigning blame, but it also can lead to an insidious escalation, where violence can be justified as justice. This partly explains the “lawfare” phenomenon, where law schools justify and rationalize illegality because it is thought to serve a higher purpose in social justice claims. Law professors will routinely misinterpret the Constitution and completely misrepresent normal court procedure to advance their social and political ideology.
Iranian retaliation runs the risk of being normalized by university members, and is justified because of a social cause linked to a confused perception of equality, justice, and retribution.
Universities must be clear that they will not be used for foreign irregular warfare. This includes not just the “campus” proper, but those affiliated research institutions that host sensitive activities. An example is the nuclear research facility at Argonne National Laboratory, which the University of Chicago manages. Whether university administrations are up to this leadership task, or even willing to take it on, may be a question.
Cover by Jared Gould using image of “Brown University Gaza Solidarity Encampment” by Kenneth C. Zirkel on Wikimedia Commons & “Department of Homeland Security” by DonkeyHotey on Flickr
