Apparently harvesting names of students (especially demonstrators) whose political views do not align with the Trump dictatorship, with the intent of canceling their visas & green cards and deporting them:

When federal civil rights attorneys launched investigations in February into whether universities properly responded to antisemitism on campuses, they noticed something unusual about the marching orders from their bosses at the Education Department.

An early step in civil rights investigations is always a letter to the university demanding certain information. Typically, the department asks how many discrimination complaints were received, and what school officials did in response.

But the Trump administration told the attorneys working on the cases to also collect the names and nationalities of students who might have harassed Jewish students or faculty, according to documents and three attorneys with the Office for Civil Rights who have direct knowledge of the situation and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases publicly.

…

The job of the Office for Civil Rights is to investigate whether schools properly handled complaints of discrimination and harassment. Its role does not include disciplining students who may have been responsible for the harassment, so the government does not normally request their names — much less their nationalities.

A second attorney familiar with the process said, “There is no investigative reason for us to be asking for that information.” This person added that making the request might be a violation of civil rights law.

“There is no doubt that it can be used improperly,” a third attorney said.

New Trump demand to colleges: Name protesters — and their nationalities

New Trump demand to colleges: Name protesters — and their nationalities