Trump targeting international students for pro-palestinian protests: Is it legal?

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In a significant escalation of its repression on campus activism, the Trump administration claims to have had revoked more than 300 student visasFirst of all targeting international students involved in pro-palestinian protests. “Every time I find one of these lunar, they take their visas,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week.

The administration accused the students without providing evidence or adequate process supporting terrorism or engaging in anti -Semitic behavior while participating in protests. These accusations were perceived against students who revoked their visas, such as Rümeysa Öztürk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, and for Mahmoud Khalil, a green book holder and a permanent US resident, who was arrested for a different provision of the law.

A few of Students who have been targeted have agreed To “self-deport” and leave the country voluntarily in recent days, according to local news reports, while almost a dozen were arrested and detained by federal agents and are now waiting for deportation procedures.

At the center of the administration’s efforts there is a critical constitutional question: are the non -active that have the right to free speech protection once they put their foot on the American soil?

Legally, the answer is dark, said an expert for The Washington Post – at least when it comes to combing by the supreme Court decisions. The court was clear that the protection of the first amendment from criminal or civil penalties for speech applies to citizens and non -citizens alike. What is less established is, however How to apply these protection in the context of immigrationwhere the executive branch has a wide discretion of restraint or deportation.

“The Supreme Court has confirmed, during the red scare period, the deportations of non -citizens for their involvement with the policy of the Communist Party. But there are other cases of the Supreme Court in which they support the rights of free expression of citizens,” said for Post Tyler Coward, the leader for government business at the basis of individual rights.

Such a case was The Decision of the Court of 1945 in Bridges v. WixonWho came after the government tried to deport the Australian work leader Harry Bridges, on the grounds that he was “affiliated” with the Communist Party. The court held that deportation based only on political associations or individual beliefs violated the first amendment.

But just seven years after bridges, in Harisiades v. Shaughnessy, the yard delayed wide at the federal discretion of immigration regarding the national security questions and allowed the deportation of legal residents regarding the quality of member to the Communist Party.

These decisions date in a period of increased fear of communist infiltration – usually called “red scared” or “McCarthyism” – when thousands of people have been researched, drawn, listed or targeted by deportation and are thinking of presenting in the following legal struggles. This week, lawyers for the Khalil-first-centered student with high profile that has been detained in this effort- He described the moment as “the McCarthy era again.”

Some see the current moment as And more extremely. “You have not seen the government rounding students and faculties for employment in political protest,” Ramya Krishnan told The Guardian. “I really think this is unprecedented. “

Many of the students ended on lists compiled by private pro-Israel surveillance groups like Betar and The Canary Mission, which tasted They themselves with the identification of accused people of aroused “hatred of the US, Israel and Jews in the campuses of the College of North America.” Said Betar He presented the Government Protesters namesBut the immigration and customs application denies to rely on the group’s list for students.

Rubio invoked the authority to penalize non -cultures for speech under two separate provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Law of 1952. One gives him the broad office latitude for the revocation of visas for reasons of national securityand to do this without practically any explanation or supervision. Once revoked, they are considered “outside the status”, which can lead to the elimination of the procedures in accordance with the general provisions of the immigration law. Deportations can challenge their revocation or detention on the first amendment and reasons regarding the appropriate processBut historically, The courts were deferential for the executive branch to these questions.

Rubio’s authority to initiate deportations for green card holders like Khalil is more challenged. Rubio has claimed authority According to a section of the law This allows the USA to remove non -citizens whose presence believes that it threatens its external policy. As we have briefly examined in a previous edition of this newsletter, some legal experts Believe that this disposition has already been removed in the federal court because it was overly wide.

According to Greg Chen and Amy Grenier with the American Association of Immigration Lawyers, if a person is targeted for speech, the use of this provision also requires Rubio to Send a letter to Congress Stating “reasonable reasons from a facial and good faith” that it has led a student to be a threat to the Security.

Also, Chen and Grenier remark that, in 1990, the Congress added a “safe port” provision to this law that explicitly prevents “due to past, statements or associations of the past, current or expected, if these beliefs, statements or associations were legal in the United States.” In order to achieve this restriction, Rubio should determine that the presence of the person “would compromise a convincing interest in the United States foreign policy.”

Similar arguments were made in a Amicus Brief has submitted Last week in Khalil’s case with Over 150 scholars’ laws of immigration law arguing That invocation of the law by Rubio is both unprecedented and procedural. It is worth noting that the administration has changed its reason to seek Khalil’s deportation in a deposit last month, accusing him of immigration fraud because he did not reveal his previous employment in his demand for green book.

On April 1, a federal judge denied the Trump administration Request to move Khalil’s process from New Jersey to Louisianawhere Khalil was moved shortly after his arrest. Government quoted logistical concerns for transferIncluding a bed outbreak in New Jersey, but many immigrant rights lawyers believe that relocation was intended for Khalil’s case to be heard in Louisiana’s western district and probably in terms of Court of Appeal of 5 -CircuitOne of the most conservative federal courts in the country.

Regardless of the way the legal challenges, the groups of civil freedoms and the organizers of the students say that the administration’s efforts have a Cooling effect on campus speechWith many students in question trying to keep “a low profile to avoid the attention of the Trump administration,” CNN informed.

Accounts from the installation where Khalil is owned Prolonged isolation detail, limited access to Legal Lawyer, Palty meals and inappropriate medical care. “I wake up in the cold mornings and spend long days the witnesses of the quiet injustices in progress against many people prevented by the laws of the law,” Khalil wrote in a statement last month. His next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 8th.