Journalism of Courage
A US federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration acted unlawfully by targeting foreign students and academics engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy with visa cancellations, arrests and deportations.
What did the judge say?
US District Judge William Young in Boston said the administration violated the Constitution’s First Amendment by restricting protected political speech on university campuses.
Young wrote that officials from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security “acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target noncitizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech.”
He added, “They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right.”
When was the case filed?
The lawsuit was brought in March after immigration authorities arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate who was the first person targeted under the policy.
The case was filed by the American Association of University Professors, its chapters at Harvard, Rutgers and New York University, and the Middle East Studies Association.
How were students affected?
Since Khalil’s arrest, the government has cancelled the visas of hundreds of students and scholars and detained some, including Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk. She was taken into custody in Massachusetts after co-writing an opinion article critical of her university’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Several judges have ordered the release of detained students, finding that immigration authorities acted in retaliation for their pro-Palestinian advocacy.
Who brought and opposed the case?
Faculty groups argued the administration began targeting pro-Palestinian voices after Trump signed executive orders in January directing agencies to act against non-citizens who “espouse hateful ideology” and to “vigorously” combat antisemitism.
Those orders followed widespread campus protests after Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
The Trump administration denied that any ideological deportation policy existed. The Justice Department said it was using its discretion to enforce immigration laws in order to protect national security and the safety of Jewish students.
Judge Young said his decision only determined that the policy was unlawful. He will decide later what remedy to impose. Lawyers for the faculty groups have asked him to ban the administration from carrying out or threatening such deportations in the future.
(With inputs from Reuters)
