The Trump administration is seeking to arrest and deport a 21-year-old Columbia University student and legal permanent resident who has been involved in pro-Palestinian protests.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have been looking for Yunseo Chung, who came to the U.S. with her family from South Korea at the age of 7, since earlier this month, including by visiting her parents’ residence and telling her lawyer that there’s an administrative warrant for her arrest, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.
ICE issues so-called administrative warrants against noncitizens accused of immigration violations. They are not signed by judges.
The lawsuit says the actions by ICE and other officials started “mere days” after Chung was arrested and given an “obstruction of governmental administration” citation by the New York Police Department during a March 5 protest over Columbia University taking disciplinary actions against certain students who had been involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Her lawyers argue the administration is targeting Chung because of her political speech, citing the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist who was arrested by ICE earlier this month and who the government is trying to deport.
“Now, officials at the highest echelons of government are attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike, including Ms. Chung’s speech,” the lawsuit says.
“The case challenges the Trump administration’s alarming new policy of using immigration law to target noncitizens who engage in protest or advocacy in support of Palestinian rights, part of a series of authoritarian actions through which the administration seeks to silence political viewpoints it opposes,” the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, which filed the lawsuit, said in a statement. “Speech concerning political change receives the highest level of protection under the First Amendment, which the Supreme Court for nearly a century has interpreted to protect noncitizens.”
The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday confirmed to CBS News it is seeking to deport Chung, saying she “has engaged in concerning conduct,” and characterized the March 5 protest as “pro-Hamas.”
“She is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws,” DHS said. “Chung will have an opportunity to present her case before an immigration judge.”
Chung’s lawyers said the government is trying to revoke their client’s green card and eventually deport her through the same rarely used immigration law that officials have invoked to justify Khalil’s detention — although the Justice Department has also since accused Khalil of immigration fraud. That law allows the secretary of state to make noncitizens subject to deportation if he determines their presence and activities threaten the foreign policy interests of the U.S.
Chung’s attorneys called the idea that her speech in support of Palestinians could jeopardize U.S. foreign policy “a preposterous proposition.
The lawsuit asks the federal court in Manhattan to block ICE from arresting Chung under that law and to declare that the Trump administration is unlawfully targeting pro-Palestinian activists because of their political speech, in violation of the First Amendment.
