Judge blocks detention of Columbia student targeted by ICE
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Columbia University campus. Photo: Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
A federal judge issued an order Tuesday barring federal immigration officials from detaining a Columbia University student whom the Trump administration has targeted for participating in pro-Palestinian protests.
Why it matters: Yunseo Chung's case is the latest example of the Trump administration's efforts to detain and deport people who are legally in the U.S., including some who have been targeted for their political views and activities.
The latest: U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald granted the temporary restraining order Tuesday after a request from Chung's lawyers.
- "Yunseo no longer has to fear that ICE will spirit her away to a distant prison simply because she spoke up for Palestinian human rights," her lawyer, Ramzi Kassem, told Politico.
- Chung, 21, filed a lawsuit Monday against President Trump and other officials in a bid to block the administration's efforts to deport her.
The big picture: Chung is a legal permanent resident in the U.S. who has lived in the country since she was seven years old, according to the lawsuit.
- Chung participated in the pro-Palestine campus demonstrations at Columbia but did not have a high-profile role in the protests, it noted.
- Her lawsuit — filed in Manhattan federal court against Trump and other administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — claims the administration undertook an "unprecedented and unjustifiable assault on First Amendment and other rights" against her.
Zoom in: After media identified Chung as being one of the demonstrators arrested at a campus sit-in in early March, "the federal government began a series of unlawful efforts to arrest, detain, and remove Ms. Chung from the country because of her protected speech," the suit alleged.
- ICE agents conducted multiple residence searches looking for Chung and informed her lawyer that her permanent resident status was being revoked.
- Chung's whereabouts remain unknown, but her lawyers confirmed she remains in the country, the New York Times reported.
What they're saying: "Officials at the highest echelons of government are attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike," the lawsuit stated.
- A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told Axios in a statement that Chung had "engaged in concerning conduct, including when she was arrested by NYPD during a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard College. She is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws."
State of play: Earlier this month, federal immigration authorities arrested Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the U.S. with a green card.
- Trump accused Khalil, who had helped lead the pro-Palestine campus demonstrations, of being a "Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student."
- Ranjani Srinivasan, a Columbia graduate student from India, fled to Canada after DHS revoked her student visa. In a press release, DHS claimed Srinivasan was involved in "activities supporting Hamas" but offered no evidence.
- Last week, federal immigration authorities detained a Georgetown University graduate student from India in the U.S. on a student visa, whom administration officials accused of "spreading Hamas propaganda."
Go deeper: Tracking the foreign nationals detained by ICE as tourists or U.S. residents
Editor's note: This story was updated with additional developments and a statement from a DHS spokesperson.
