America has been pitched the idea of offering asylum to Britain’s Jews amid rising antisemitism in the UK, Robert Garson, US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
The Post contacted Manchester-born Garson after he told The Telegraph on Sunday that he had been in talks with the US State Department about providing sanctuary for Jews fleeing antisemitism, given “the UK is no longer a safe place for Jews.”
Garson told the Post that the idea is “incredibly nascent,” but that it has been “brewing” in his head for a while and he has discussed it seriously with various people. He also stressed that he is speaking for himself and not on behalf of the administration.
He said that the idea began forming after America granted asylum to white South African farmers. This is in reference to the Trump administration’s February 2025 announcement of the South African refugee program, officially known as Mission South Africa, due to claims of systemic violence and racial discrimination against white South Africans.
“I thought: Jews are being persecuted in the United Kingdom,"Garson said. “They fit a wonderful demographic for the United States. They are, on the whole, educated. They speak English natively. They’ve got businesses. They’re exactly the sort of immigrant the United States should want to attract. So, why not?”
After Garson’s appointment to the Holocaust Memorial Council board was confirmed, he pitched the idea to Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the Trump administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
“His first reaction was that Britain had to take care of its own Jews. And my answer to him was, but will they fight for them? You know, if America were to say, we will give all Jewish people asylum in the US, would the British people say, good riddance, get out?”
“There is a demographic battle that Britain is losing at the moment,” he said, providing the example of the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Birmingham last year.
Garson said he believed West Midlands Police’s chief constable Craig Guildford, who resigned from the police on Friday, “was a scapegoat.”
“I think he was pressured into doing this by local MPs and by the local community. It is a group, it is a violent and vocal group that Britain is too scared to stand up to,” Garson said. “Over the past 10 years, the British have become hostage to a very small, vocal, and violent group of people.”
Garson: Fear-mongering allegations don't hold up when Jews are at risk
The Post asked Garson to respond to those accusing him of fear-mongering. “Let’s put it like this. My wife is American, but her father was born in [then Mandatory] Palestine. The only reason her family survived the Holocaust is that her grandfather, the head of the Mizrahi Party in Poland, said in 1933, ‘You have to get out.’”
“I’m sure people told him that he was fear-mongering,” Garson said, adding that his pitch was actually about taking practical measures in response to a situation.
So what makes the US so much better for Jews than the UK that it would serve as a good host country?
For Garson, it is the fact that Trump is “probably one of the most common-sense presidents, and I think he should see this, not necessarily as a Jewish issue, but as an American issue in the United States.”
Beyond Trump, other prominent figures in the administration, such as Pam Bondi, the attorney-general, and the Justice Department’s Leo James Terrell, have “stepped up and cracked down” on antisemitism.
And then on a state level, Garson pointed out, many US states, such as Florida, have taken decisive action to protect Jews. Two days after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, Gov. Ron DeSantis outlawed Students for Justice in Palestine in Florida’s State University system.
“There’s no doubt that there are issues in the US, with places like New York. However, nobody can disagree that President Trump is seeking to make the country safer for Jews in particular,” Garson said.
Why shouldn’t UK Jews just seek asylum in Israel?
“So it’s true that Israel’s raison d’être is for the asylum of Jews. However, two things: one, to live in Israel is very difficult, and in reality, some people make aliyah and then leave very quickly,” Garson said.
“Secondly, America has the second largest population of Jews in the world, and I would say Israel also needs a strong America, and it’s perfectly complementary for Jews.”
Whether the Trump administration considers offering asylum is a matter for a later date, but, as Garson put it, “The seed has been planted.”
Additionally, if America did, in fact, institute this, it would have billions of dollars of investment, and the brain drain on Britain would be massive.
Many UK Jews have taken to social media in the last 24 hours to say that over the last few years, they have considered leaving the UK, with many saying it’s a matter of “when,” not of “if.”
“My phone has been blowing up,” said Garson. “But nearly every one of the questions isn’t: ‘How can I get there? And how can I claim just asylum?’”
“It’s: ‘How do I move my business there?’”
Responding to the matter on Monday, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer said, “The home of British Jewry, and of Jews around the world, is the State of Israel.”
He added that his ministry was working to advance aliyah through a wide range of programs that provide guidance and support for successful integration into community life, employment, and housing in Israel.
“Aliyah is the core value of Zionism, and it will nurture and strengthen the State of Israel,” Sofer said.