The Trump administration violated the constitution when it targeted non-US citizens for deportation solely to support Palestinians, and the federal ruling said Tuesday it keenly criticised President Trump and his policies as a serious threat to free speech.
District Judge William Young of Boston agreed that the policies described as ideological deportation violated the First Amendment and Administrative Procedure Act, a law governing the way federal agencies develop and issue regulations. Young also found that the policy was “arbitrary or whimsical, and therefore reversed the previous policy without inferred explanation.”
“This lawsuit – perhaps the most important thing in history within this district court’s jurisdiction, is to clearly show whether non-citizens who are legally present here in the United States actually have the same free speech rights as us.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The plaintiff in the case welcomed the verdict.
“The Trump administration’s attempt to deport students for political views is an attack on the constitution and a betrayal of American values,” said American Assun President Todd Wolfson. Professor at Union University. “This trial revealed their true purpose: to blackmail and silence anyone who dares to them. If we didn’t fight back, we thought Trump police would not stop at the pro-Palestinian voices.
The ruling came after a trial in which the association’s lawyers presented witnesses who testified that the Trump administration had launched coordinated efforts to target students and academics who criticized Israel or showed sympathy for the Palestinians.
“Since the McCarthy era has been the target of such intense oppression for legal political speeches,” Ramiya Krishnan, senior staff lawyer attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told the court. “This policy creates a cloud of fear for the university community and is at war with the First Amendment.”
Student detention, primarily on the East Coast, was widely concerned at the University of California. The University of California hosts the country’s largest international student population and was home to the major pro-Palestinian camp in 2024. UCLA set up a 24-hour hotline earlier this year for faculty members who are potentially trapped and those who are afraid of habit enforcement.
In separate actions this year, the government also temporarily revoked visas and immigration status for the entire UC system and other US campuses based on minor violations such as traffic tickets. The cancellation was reversed nationwide after a federal lawsuit was filed.
In the Boston case, Trump administration lawyers gave witnesses who testified that there was no ideological deportation policy, as the plaintiffs argued.
“We have no policy to revoke a visa based on a protected speech,” Victoria Sontra told the court. “The evidence presented in this trial shows that the plaintiff is challenging what is merely a government enforcement of immigration law.”
John Armstrong, director of the Consular Office, testified that the revocation of the visa is based on long-standing immigration laws. Armstrong admitted that he played a role in the visa revocation of several well-known activists, including Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil, and a memo was presented in support of their removal.
Armstrong also argued that the revocation of the visa was not based on a protected speech and rejected accusations that there was a policy of targeting someone for ideology.
One witness testified that the campaign targets more than 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters. Of the 5,000 names reviewed, investigators wrote reports on about 200 cases that could violate U.S. law, Peter Hatch of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigation Division testified. Hatch said until this year he couldn’t remember the student protesters introduced to revoke his visa.
Reports included Palestinian activists and Columbia University alumnus Halil. He was released last month in federal immigration custody 104 days later. Halil has become a symbol of Trump’s clampdown against the protest.
The other was Ozturk, a student at Tufts University. He was released after being arrested on suburban Boston Street before being detained for six weeks in May. She said she was illegally detained after co-authoring last year that she criticized schools’ reaction to the war in Gaza.
Casey wrote in the Associated Press. Times staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.
