A United States federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's efforts to forcibly deport foreign scholars just because they are Palestinian students is illegal, saying it violates the Constitution.
The controversial case was brought forward by the national American Association of University Professors (AAUP); its Harvard, Rutgers, and New York University chapters; and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA).
Judge Rules Against Deportation Efforts
The situation comes after the arrest and detention of several non-citizen students and scholars who have been speaking out for Palestinian rights. On Tuesday, Judge William G. Young issued a 161-page ruling, where he called the case "perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court."
He said that it presents the issue of whether non-citizens who are lawfully present in the U.S. are given the same free speech rights as other people who were born and raised here. Young said that the court answered this question unequivocally, "Yes, they do," according to The Guardian.
Read more: Guatemalan Children Speak Out About Traumatic Efforts by Trump Administration To Deport Them
The case includes plaintiffs who accused the government of running an illegal "ideological-deportation policy." This comes after President Donald Trump signed two executive orders in January that targeted non-citizens who "espouse hateful ideology" and aimed to combat antisemitism.
However, the government denied such a policy even existed, declaring in court filings that it was simply the product of the plaintiffs' "imagination." Officials added that they made determinations about each individual on a case-by-case basis.
Misusing Their Powers
Judge Young added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem misused their powers and authorities in the deportation campaign. He noted that they made efforts to "strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals," Aljazeera reported.
His latest ruling represents a major obstacle in the Trump administration's efforts to target non-citizens in the U.S. who participated in campus activism against the war in Gaza last year. Rubio previously said he revoked the visas of hundreds of students over their Palestinian activism.
A major part of the judge's ruling also talked about the president, the First Amendment, and the state of the nation. He said that Trump's conduct violated the sacred oath of a president to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." He argued that the Republican's actions represented a "full-throated assault on the First Amendment."
Young also cited former President Ronald Reagan as saying that "freedom is a fragile thing" and must be fought for by each generation, as per CNN.
