Trump administration broke the law by revoking visas of anti-Israel activists, judge rules

A US judge rules that President Donald Trump’s administration acted unconstitutionally by adopting a policy of revoking visas, arresting, detaining, and deporting foreign students and faculty engaged in pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel advocacy.

US District Judge William Young in Boston sided with groups representing university faculty, finding that the administration was chilling free speech on college campuses in violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Young said officials of the US Departments of State and Homeland Security “acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target noncitizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech.”

“They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right,” Young wrote.

His decision only assessed whether the administration had adopted an unlawful policy. Young has said he would determine what remedy to impose at a later phase of the case. Lawyers for the faculty groups have urged him to bar the administration from threatening such arrests and deportations going forward.