Judge warns Trump administration from changing plaintiffs immigration status in First Amendment case
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that academics who were party to an agreement case People who claim that U.S. policy singles out noncitizens for detention or deportation because of their pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses can seek relief from the court if their immigration status is changed as punishment for participating in the case.
U.S. District Judge William Young’s decision follows a hearing last year in which he ruled that the Trump administration was violating the Constitution by targeting non-U.S. citizens for deportation solely in support of the Palestinians. criticizes Israel. Young has repeatedly chastised the administration for violating the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights, and on Thursday issued what he described as a “countervailing sanction to protect certain non-citizen members of the Plaintiffs from any punishment for their free exercise of their constitutional rights.”
At the hearing earlier this month, Young argued that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their agents engaged in an “unconstitutional conspiracy” to curtail the plaintiffs’ free speech and created a chilling effect on their rights through attempts to “select out certain individuals.”
“The big problem in this case is that the president of the United States and his cabinet secretaries apparently did not honor the First Amendment,” said Young, who was appointed by late Republican President Ronald Reagan. “There seems to be no understanding by this government of what the First Amendment is.”
Young said in his ruling that a noncitizen challenging a change of immigration status must prove they were members of the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, two groups that filed the lawsuit between March 25, 2025, and Sept. 30, 2025. They will also need to show that their immigration status has not expired and that they have not committed any crimes after September 30, 2025. It is stated that the Associated Press does not have any information on this subject. Members of these groups whose status has changed because they were part of the cause.
“Upon such evidence, the change in immigration status will be presumed to be retribution for the exercise of First Amendment rights during the instant case,” Young wrote.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesman did not respond to a request for comment
During last year’s trial, government witnesses acknowledged that the campaign targeted more than 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters. Other witnesses for the plaintiffs testified how the campaign created fear among academics and encouraged some to cease their activism.
Among the cases that fueled the case was that of a former Columbia University graduate student Mahmud Halil. A federal appeals panel earlier this month lower court overturned its decision This incident, which released Khalil from immigration prison, brought the government one step closer to arresting him and ultimately Deporting Palestinian activist.
A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not decide the central issue in Khalil’s case: whether the Trump administration’s effort to expel Khalil from the United States because of his campus activism and criticism of Israel was unconstitutional.
But in its 2-1 decision, the panel ruled that a federal judge in New Jersey does not currently have the authority to decide the matter. Federal law requires the case to go entirely through immigration courts before Khalil can appeal the decision, they wrote.
The decision marked a major victory for the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign to detain and deport non-citizens participating in anti-Israel protests. However, it is not yet clear whether the government wants to detain Halil, a legal permanent resident, again while his legal difficulties continue.
Another one was Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk. Who was released in May After being detained for six weeks He was arrested on a street in a Boston suburb. He said he was illegally detained last year after he wrote a column criticizing his school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
At the final hearing in the case, Young repeatedly appeared stunned that the nation’s top leaders would attempt to implement such a policy.
“How could this happen? How could the highest officials in our government seek to so violate the rights of people living legally here in the United States?” he asked the court. he said. “The record in this case convinces me that these top officials, including the President of the United States, have a fearful view of freedom.”
“The administration’s unlawful efforts to deport pro-Palestinian advocates have spread terror in our campus communities,” said Ramya Krishnan, senior attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, who filed the motion for release in court.
“Students and faculty should not have to live in fear that ICE agents may detain them from their homes for the sole purpose of expressing political expression,” he said. “Today’s decision makes clear that the administration’s campaign of intimidation must end.”
