BOSTON—Below are highlights from today’s proceedings in the trial before Judge William G. Young in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in a case challenging the Trump administration’s policy of ideological deportation.

  • John Armstrong, the most senior official at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, testified that he either gave final approval or passed to Secretary Rubio the “action memos” approving Rümeysa Öztürk’s visa revocation and Mahmoud Khalil’s determination of removability.

  • Under questioning from Alexandra Conlon of Sher Tremonte LLP, Armstrong admitted that statements critical of Israel or U.S. foreign policy could qualify a visa or green card holder for deportation. He also conceded that Öztürk’s action memo highlighted her op-ed and her attenuated connection with a pro-Palestinian student group.

  • The court also heard from Veena Dubal, the general counsel of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Dubal explained that the ideological deportation policy has fundamentally altered AAUP’s activities, spurring the organization to advocate for its noncitizen members whose academic freedom and immigration status is under threat. She was questioned by Xiangnong (George) Wang of the Knight First Amendment Institute.

  • Closing arguments will begin this coming Monday, July 21 at 10 am ET after a short discussion of the parties’ remaining documentary evidence starting at 9 am ET.

A transcript of today’s testimony will be available shortly here.

Read daily trial updates here.

Members of the press need to register daily to access the trial livestream here.

Read more about the case here.

Plaintiffs include AAUP, AAUP chapters at Harvard, Rutgers, and NYU, and the Middle East Studies Association. The associations’ members include tens of thousands of faculty and students across the country. 

Lawyers on the case include Ramya Krishnan, Jameel Jaffer, Alex Abdo, Scott Wilkens, Carrie DeCell, Xiangnong (George) Wang, Talya Nevins, Jackson Busch, and Stephany Kim for the Knight First Amendment Institute, Ahilan Arulanantham, Michael Tremonte, Noam Biale, Alexandra Conlon, and Courtney Gans for Sher Tremonte, and Edwina Clarke and David Zimmer for Zimmer, Citron & Clarke.

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