Trump targeting of pro-Palestinian campus activists for deportation is unlawful

1/10/2025 6:22

A U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's administration had acted unconstitutionally by adopting a policy of revoking visas, arresting, detaining and deporting foreign students and faculty engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy.



U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston sided with groups representing university faculty, finding that the administration was chilling free speech on college campuses in violation of the Constitution's First Amendment.



Young said officials of the U.S. Departments of State and 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."



"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," Young wrote.