Deportation of pro-Palestinian activists ruled unconstitutional by US judge

BOSTON, United States (MNTV) – A U.S. federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution by targeting foreign students and academics engaged in advocacy for Palestinian rights through arrests, detentions, visa cancellations and deportations.

District Judge William Young in Boston sided with faculty groups, finding that the administration’s actions unlawfully chilled free speech on campuses in breach of the First Amendment. His ruling assessed the policy’s legality, with remedies to be determined later.

The case stems from the March arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate, who became the first target of Trump’s effort to deport non-citizen students with views in support of Palestinian rights.

Hundreds of other students and scholars later faced visa revocations and arrests, including Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk, who was detained in Massachusetts after co-authoring an op-ed critical of her school’s response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The American Association of University Professors, joined by chapters at Harvard, Rutgers and New York University, along with the Middle East Studies Association, filed the lawsuit.

They argued the policy was triggered by Trump’s executive orders signed in January, directing federal agencies to combat “hateful ideology” and anti-Semitism after protests advocating for Palestinian freedom swept campuses nationwide.

Trump’s Justice Department denied the existence of any ideological deportation program, claiming the administration was simply exercising its authority to enforce immigration laws for security and to protect Jewish students.

Young, a Reagan appointee, rejected that defense, ruling that the administration’s approach amounted to unconstitutional retaliation against protected political speech.