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A federal judge has ruled that President Donald Trump‘s administration violated the rights of immigrant pro-Palestinian student protesters by targeting them for deportation. In a 161-page opinion, Judge William G. Young condemned the crackdown as a deliberate attempt to “strike fear” into those exercising their First Amendment rights.
Judge’s opinion
Judge Young, part of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, handed down what Politico’s Kyle Cheney described as “the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era.” The ruling examined the cases of student visa holders targeted by the Trump administration. This included Mahmoud Khalil, a protest organizer at Columbia University, and Rümeysa Öztürk, who was arrested after co-authoring an op-ed that criticized Tufts University’s handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict. Despite their activism, neither student had a criminal record.
Targeting protesters
Young outlined multiple cases in which authorities singled out non-citizen students after they participated in pro-Palestinian protests. He rejected the administration’s justification that the actions were part of an effort to combat antisemitism on college campuses. Instead, he found “no direct connection” between the students’ conduct and the alleged antisemitic threats cited by officials. The judge opened and closed his opinion with a response to an anonymous postcard sent to the court, which included a threatening message, “TRUMP HAS PARDONS AND TANKS. … WHAT DO YOU HAVE?”
‘Mr. or Ms. Anonymous’
“Dear Mr. or Ms. Anonymous,” Young began. “Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, We the People of the United States — you and me — have our magnificent Constitution. Here’s how that works out in a specific case…” He ended the opinion with another message to the postcard’s author. “The next time you’re in Boston [the postmark on the card is from the Philadelphia area] stop in at the Courthouse and watch your fellow citizens, sitting as jurors, reach out for justice. It is here, and in courthouses just like this one, both state and federal, spread throughout our land that our Constitution is most vibrantly alive, for it is well said that ‘Where a jury sits, there burns the lamp of liberty.’”
Free speech
Starting with the full text of the First Amendment, the opinion stated that non-citizens lawfully present in the U.S. are entitled to the “same free speech rights” as citizens. Young criticized the Trump administration’s attempts to bully U.S. institutions into falling in line. He also condemned the use of masked ICE agents, dismissing the government’s justification as “disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable.” He added, “ICE goes masked for a single reason — to terrorize Americans into quiescence.” He also pointed out that U.S. troops “do not ordinarily wear masks” and this was “a matter of honor.” He concluded that the efforts by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other Trump administration officials to target pro-Palestinian student activists created an environment of fear that suppresses free speech.
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Author: Isabella Torregiani
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