Arizona lawmakers have outlawed encampments on public university campuses as protests continue to erupt at schools across the United States.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Kate Hobbs last week signed House Bill 2880, which bars people “from establishing or occupying an encampment on a university or community college campus.”

The law also requires school administrators to direct people who set up encampments to “immediately dismantle” them or vacate the campus. Those who set up encampments may be held liable for damages to campuses, and those who do not leave are subject to trespassing charges. 

Law enforcement agencies “must enforce the prohibition on establishing or occupying an encampment,” the law states, and they have “the authority to remove an encampment and any individual or group from campus that has violated the prohibition and refused to comply with the direction to leave.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather on the lawn in front of Arizona State University’s historic Old Main building in Tempe, Arizona, on April 26, 2024. (© Diannie Chavez / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Various Democratic lawmakers and activist organizations opposed Hernandez’s bill, including CAIR-AZ and ACLU Arizona, which described the bill as an effort to “curb free speech at a time when we must firmly protect people’s right to dissent.”

President Donald Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from schools over antisemitism concerns and deport students who participate in demonstrations expressing support for terrorist organizations.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” the president said in a Jan. 30 fact sheet on the executive order. “I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”