Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Measures to Deport pro-Palestinian International Students - Sarmad
A federal judge in California ruled that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump sought to deport foreign students in an “unconstitutional” manner due to their pro-Palestinian activism and criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza.
In a 90-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman concluded that the Trump administration’s use of existing immigration laws to revoke the visas of foreign students and deport them “violated their constitutional right to free speech.”
The federal judge emphasized the importance of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, stating that the government was “violating the Constitution” by silencing critics of Israel’s war on Gaza and others, as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport non-citizens whom it claimed had caused disruptions on campuses while expressing their views.
Writing in the ruling, Hillman stated, “In the United States, freedom of expression, including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders, is not a sign of our democracy’s fragility, but a testament to its strength,” according to The Associated Press.
She added, “This strength diminishes when members of our community, both citizens and non-citizens alike, are forced to engage in self-censorship... out of fear of government retaliation.”
The case stems from a lawsuit filed last year by Stanford University’s independent student newspaper, The Stanford Daily.
The newspaper stated that some of its editors, who were in the United States on student visas, refrained from covering pro-Palestinian protests or writing about topics related to Israeli military attacks on Gaza, fearing deportation.
The newspaper, along with two unnamed plaintiffs, accused Secretary of State Marco Rubio and then-Director of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem of violating students’ constitutional rights through the immigration enforcement measures adopted by their administrations.
The Immigration and Nationality Act, first enacted in 1952, grants the Secretary of State the authority to deport an individual if they are deemed a threat to the “compelling national interest” of the United States, according to The Hill.
Hillman concluded that Rubio and other White House officials had used this provision to “justify taking retaliatory action against non-Americans because of their opposition to government positions.” She noted that “non-citizens enjoy the same First Amendment rights as U.S. citizens.”
The ruling cited several instances in which Trump administration officials described pro-Palestinian protesters as “sympathizers of Hamas.”
It further stated that Trump and his allies had repeatedly threatened, over the past year and a half, to deport campus protest participants and revoke their visas.
The ruling also referenced a White House memo issued in January 2025, which stated: “To all foreign residents who participated in protests supporting extremists, you are under surveillance: in 2025, we will find you and deport you. We will also swiftly revoke student visas for all Hamas sympathizers on campuses, which have been overrun by unprecedented extremism.”
Hillman, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by former President Joe Biden, concluded that the Trump administration had violated students’ rights guaranteed under the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution by relying on two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act to use their expression and opinions as grounds for deportation.
George Porteous, editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, welcomed the ruling in a statement posted on social media on Friday. He said, “Journalists in our newsroom should not fear that writing a story will lead to their deportation. Today’s victory means they will not have to.”
