BOSTON—A federal judge today ruled that a case seeking to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members who participate in pro-Palestinian protests can go forward. Filed on behalf of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, Ahilan Arulanantham, and Zimmer, Citron & Clarke LLP, the lawsuit alleges that the administration’s ideological-deportation policy violates the First Amendment by targeting constitutionally protected speech that Americans have a right to hear and engage with. 

“We’re pleased with today’s decision and are gratified by the court’s recognition of the weighty First Amendment interests at stake,” said Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight Institute who argued the motion before the court. “This repressive and unconstitutional policy has created a climate of fear on college campuses across the country.”

Following executive orders issued by President Trump in January, the federal agencies that enforce the immigration laws have arrested and detained several people associated with U.S. colleges and universities, including legal permanent residents, on the basis of constitutionally protected speech and association. The administration has also supplied universities with the names of other students they intend to target and has launched new social media surveillance programs aimed at identifying still others. 

“The Trump administration should stop arresting students on the basis of political viewpoint, and it should immediately release the students it has already detained and threatened with deportation,” said Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director. “As the court observes, there’s simply no basis for the argument that the First Amendment permits the government to arrest and deport students on the basis of political viewpoint alone.”

Earlier this month, after the plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking a temporary pause of the policy and the government filed a motion to dismiss the case, the parties appeared before Judge Young of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In today’s decision, Judge Young mainly denied the government’s motion to dismiss, saying that the case should proceed to trial.

“The government is impermissibly, unlawfully, and unconstitutionally targeting those engaging in pro-Palestine messaging through a policy that is intimidating its targets from engaging with protected political speech,” said Aslı Bâli, president of MESA. “We are gratified that the court will allow this case to go forward.”

“This is a positive step toward defending our campuses and communities. The Trump administration’s attacks on international scholars and students who speak their minds about their political views are just the beginning of their agenda. If this isn’t stopped now, they will come next for those who teach the history of slavery or who provide gender-affirming health care or who research climate change or who counsel students about their reproductive choices,” said AAUP President Todd Wolfson. 

Read today’s opinion here.

Read more about the case here.

In addition to the AAUP and MESA, plaintiffs include AAUP chapters at Harvard, Rutgers, and NYU. The associations’ members include tens of thousands of faculty and students across the country.

Lawyers on the case include Krishnan, Jaffer, Alex Abdo, Carrie DeCell, Xiangnong (George) Wang, Talya Nevins, and Jackson Busch for the Knight First Amendment Institute, Ahilan Arulanantham, and Edwina Clarke and David Zimmer for Zimmer, Citron & Clarke. 

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, [email protected].