A federal judge on Tuesday ruled the Trump administration’s targeting of foreign nationals protesting in the United States for deportation is unconstitutional.
The administration has been working to end the often violent anti-Israel protests that overtook cities and college campuses across the nation for months following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Reagan-appointed Judge William Young argued in his decision that lawfully present noncitizens residing in the U.S. have the same free speech rights as American citizens.
“This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court –- squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us,” the decision reads. “The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do.’”
Administration officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is named as a defendant in the case, previously argued that foreign nationals in the country on student visas can face deportation over some types of speech, especially if they are openly supporting a foreign terrorist organization or have been arrested for breaking laws during their involvement in protests.
The lawsuit was brought by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the Middle East Studies Association.
“Having carefully considered the entirety of the record, this Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with the subordinate officials and agents of each of them, deliberately and with purposeful aforethought, did so concert their actions and those of their two departments intentionally to chill the rights to freedom of speech and peacefully to assemble of the non-citizen plaintiff members of the plaintiff associations,” the judge said. “What remains after issuing this opinion is to consider what, if anything, may be done to remedy these constitutional violations.”
The administration has revoked more than 1,000 student visas amid its crackdown on antisemitism, citing involvement in pro-Palestinian protests that at times openly support Hamas. Some deportation cases have amassed wide criticism and lawsuits, often questioning the administration’s reasoning and methods.
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