Judge: Foreign students have free speech rights
Ruling comes in case on 'targeted' deportations
By: Lauren Villagran
USA Today
..... A federal judge has ruled against the Trump administration's efforts to revoke he legal status of pro-Palestinian students and activists, saying top leaders violated their right to free speech.
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U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young in Boston found the actions were taken by the departments of State and Homeland Security "to strike fear" into other students with similar pro-Palestinian views, and they had the effect of "pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech."
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Young sided with groups representing university faculty, finding that the administration sought to "target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protested political speech," Young, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, opened his September 30 [2025] opinion with a scrapbook-style copy of a threatening, handwritten postcard sent to his office and dated June 19, 2025. It said: "trump has pardons and tanks... What do you have?"
..... Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem earlier in 2025 sought to revoke the legal status of several high-profile, pro-Palestinian student activists and place them in deportation proceedings.
..... Among them was Mahmoud Khalil, a former student of Columbia University and legal permanent resident who was active in pro-Palestinian protests on campus. He spent more than three months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in Louisiana and continues to fight his case to remain in the United States.
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The lawsuit was filed in March [2025] by faulty groups including the American Association of University Professors and its chapters at Harvard, Rutgers and New York University, and the Middle East Studies Association. Young issued his ruling following a trial.
..... The Department of Justice under President Donald Trump countered that no such ideological deportation policy existed and that the administration was lawfully executing its wide discretion to enforce immigration laws for the justifiable purpose of ensuring national security and protecting Jewish students.
..... "Moreover, the effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day," Young said.
..... From his first day in office, Trump tired to separate the free speech rights of American citizens from those of non-citizens. his January 20 [2025] executive order titled "restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal censorship" barred federal officials from any action "that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen." It didn't mention the free speech rights of non-citizens.