The College Fix

Lawsuit alleges executive orders create ‘climate of repression’

Academic organizations in the U.S. filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Donald Trump’s administration to stop the deportation of international students and scholars who have expressed pro-Palestinian views.

The American Association of University Professors, the Middle East Studies Association, and the AAUP chapters at Harvard, New York, and Rutgers Universities allege the administration’s recent executive orders have “created a climate of repression and fear on university campuses,” according to the lawsuit.

“While President Trump and other administration officials have described pro-Palestinian campus protests as pro-Hamas, they have stretched that label beyond the breaking point to encompass any speech supportive of Palestinian human rights or critical of Israel’s military actions in Gaza,” the lawsuit states.

Further, it states that Trump officials “have left no doubt that their new policy entails the arrest, detention, and deportation of noncitizen students and faculty for constitutionally protected speech and association.”

The plaintiffs are requesting the court to declare that the policy violates the First and Fifth Amendments.

The lawsuit cites the cases of Palestinian activists Yunseo Chung at Columbia University, Badar Suri at Georgetown University, and Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate.

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting Chung Tuesday, stating there is no evidence that she poses a “foreign-policy risk,” Inside Higher Ed reported.

The Trump administration, however, argues that her “presence in the United States hinders the administration’s foreign policy goal of stopping the spread of antisemitism” due to her involvement in pro-Palestinian protests, according to the outlet.

Similarly, a federal judge ruled this month that Suri, an Indian citizen detained after accusations that he “violat[ed] the terms of his academic visa,” could not be deported, The New York Times reported.

“Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Mr. Suri was ‘spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,’” the outlet reported.

Also this month, the Trump administration arrested Khalil, who helped lead disruptive pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University over the last year, The College Fix previously reported.

An expert on immigration and national security said the U.S. is within its rights to deport Khalil, stating he “is not a political prisoner,” as he claims.

“He is free to leave the United States whenever he chooses,” George Fishman, with the Center for Immigration Studies, stated. “Second, as an alien, he does not have the same First Amendment rights as an American citizen.”

MORE: Cornell professor, students sue Trump admin over immigration order

IMAGE CREDIT AND CAPTION: Person in legal setting holds wooden gavel; Mojo_cp/Canva Pro

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