US Considering Asylum for UK Jewish Community Amid Antisemitism Concerns

Discussions are reportedly under way within Donald Trump’s administration about the US possibly granting asylum to Jewish people from the UK, according to the Telegraph, citing the US president’s personal lawyer. Trump lawyer Robert Garson told the newspaper that he has held conversations with the US state department about offering refuge to British Jews who are leaving the UK citing rising antisemitism. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. Garson, 49, said he felt the UK was “no longer a safe place for Jews”. He added that recent events – namely an Islamist attack on a synagogue in Manchester and what he described as widespread antisemitism following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 – had led him to believe that British Jews should be given the option of sanctuary in the US. Some supporters of Israel in the UK cast mass demonstrations there against the Israeli response to the 2023 attack, in which tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed in Gaza, as motivated by antisemitism. In a US television interview in late 2023, Garson himself called protesters in New York and Los Angeles who opposed the Israeli response “marauding mobs” and accused them of “masquerading as protesters” to shout “antisemitic chants baying for Jewish blood”. In the new interview with the Telegraph, Garson said he could see “no future” for Jews in the UK and placed much of the responsibility on to British prime minister Keir Starmer, accusing him of allowing antisemitism to grow. Garson, a former British barrister who practiced in London before relocating to the US in 2008, told the Telegraph: “The UK is no longer a safe place for Jews. I have spoken to the state department as to whether the president should be offering British Jews asylum in the US.” He went on to say that such a proposition is attractive because “it is a highly educated community”. “It is a populous that speaks English natively, that is educated and doesn’t have a high proportion of criminals,” Garson said. He added: “When I look at what is going on with Jews in Britain, and when I look at the changing demographics, I don’t believe – and I have discussed this with people in the Trump administration – that there is a future for Jews in the United Kingdom. “For me, that is particularly sad.” Garson said he raised the idea of the US acting as a refuge for British Jews with Trump’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Yehuda Kaploun, in his role as a board member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council. Trump appointed Garson to the council in May after dismissing board members who had been appointed during Joe Biden’s presidency. Trump previously hired Garson to pursue a $50m lawsuit against investigative journalist Bob Woodward that was dismissed. A 2025 survey conducted by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research found that feelings of safety in the UK’s Jewish community have declined sharply in recent years. It found 35% of Jews felt unsafe in Britain in 2025, compared with 9% in 2023 before the Hamas attacks and the protests in Britain against the Israeli assault on Gaza. Perceptions of antisemitism had also intensified, with 47% of British Jews seeing it as a “very big” problem – up from just 11% in 2012.