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Fox News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Federal judge again blocks deportation of anti-Israel Columbia protester
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from detaining a Columbia University student and lawful permanent resident whom federal agents have targeted for deportation after she took part in an anti-Israel demonstration earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald's preliminary injunction on Thursday blocks Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from taking 21-year-old Yunseo Chung into custody. Chung is originally from South Korea and has lived in the U.S. since she was seven years old. ICE had attempted to arrest her in March but were unsuccessful and the court has now barred ICE from detaining her without prior approval. If the government tries to detain Chung for any reason other than her potential deportation, it must give 72 hours' notice to Chung's lawyers and the court and allow the court time to determine if the detention attempt is a pretext for First Amendment retaliation. The ruling also states that she remains free while her legal case proceeds. Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR, a legal nonprofit at City University of New York that is representing Chung, praised the ruling. "This is a win not just for Yunseo and for the legions of people who stand up for Palestinians and oppose the daily atrocities in Gaza that our government underwrites, but also for freedom of speech and the rule of law in our country," Kassem said in a statement, per the Washington Post. It comes after the same judge in March ordered immigration officials to cease their efforts to arrest Chung. The Trump administration has alleged that her participation in a protest poses a potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequence for the United States. Chung's attorneys say that the government's pursuit of the Columbia student is an "unjustifiable assault on [the] First Amendment." Chung sued the government earlier this year. The lawsuit states that Chung was a participant in the anti-Israel protests, not a leader, and was "one of a large group of college students" expressing "shared concerns" over the war in Gaza. Chung, according to the lawsuit, "visited" the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, a number of tents organized in the center of campus, but does not state whether she stayed there. The lawsuit also makes it clear that she did not make public statements or engage in high-profile activities while at the protests. Chung's lawsuit states that she was never arrested or disciplined in relation to events at the encampment. However, she was later arrested during a 2025 protest at Barnard College. The lawsuit claims that it is common in New York City for police to arrest many protesters and that charges are usually dropped or dismissed. The lawsuit states that on March 8, an ICE official signed an administrative arrest warrant for Chung and federal law enforcement went to Chung's parents' house the next day seeking to arrest her. An ICE official allegedly told Chung's attorneys on March 10 that her green card had been "revoked," according to the lawsuit. The government has the authority to rescind permanent resident status if it believes that a person has violated U.S. immigration law. Chung's attorneys say in the lawsuit that law enforcement searched Chung's dorm room on March 13 in accordance with a warrant. She was valedictorian of her high school senior class and has a near-perfect GPA heading into her senior year, according to court documents. Chung is double-majoring in English and women's and gender studies at Columbia, the Washington Post reported. The Trump administration has also sought to deport former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, whom it accuses of playing a major role in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University.
Washington Post
3 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Federal judge blocks ICE from detaining Columbia University student
A federal judge issued a new order Thursday preventing the Trump administration from arresting a Columbia University student who it is seeking to detain and deport because of her participation in a pro-Palestinian demonstration earlier this year. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is attempting to send Yunseo Chung, 21, back to South Korea, a country where she has not lived since she was 7. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald's preliminary injunction blocks ICE from taking Chung into custody. Her ruling marks the latest legal setback for the Trump administration's crackdown on noncitizen students who have engaged in pro-Palestinian activism. Chung, a U.S. permanent resident, is one of several students whom ICE has sought to arrest and deport. The administration has alleged that their activities created a hostile environment for Jewish students on campuses and that their presence undermines U.S. foreign policy. It has also accused the students, without providing evidence, of supporting the militant group Hamas. In recent months, federal agents have arrested international students and scholars — including Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia and Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts University — and swiftly sent them to detention centers halfway across the country. The detainees have not been accused of any crime, and immigration lawyers say the arrests and transfers are unprecedented. Lawyers for the detainees have argued that they are being punished for speech protected under the First Amendment. In at least three cases, judges have ordered them freed from detention as their deportation proceedings continue. Federal agents first sought to detain Chung in early March but were unable to locate her. She sued to block them, and on March 25 Buchwald issued a temporary restraining order preventing the government from taking her into custody. Last week the judge proposed a compromise of sorts. She suggested that instead of arresting Chung, ICE would provide Chung's lawyers with the document that initiates deportation proceedings, known as a Notice to Appear. Prosecutors refused and insisted that ICE have the option to arrest her first. On Thursday, Buchwald issued an injunction preventing ICE from arresting, detaining or transferring Chung. ICE has not yet issued a Notice to Appear in the case, the government said. In her order, the judge also said that if the government attempts to detain Chung for reasons unrelated to her potential deportation, it must provide 72 hours advance notice to her lawyers so the court can determine if the move is a 'pretext for First Amendment retaliation.' 'This is a win not just for Yunseo and for the legions of people who stand up for Palestinians and oppose the daily atrocities in Gaza that our government underwrites, but also for freedom of speech and the rule of law in our country,' said Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR, a legal nonprofit at City University of New York that is representing Chung. Chung immigrated to the United States with her parents as a child and was valedictorian of her high school senior class, according to court documents. She is double-majoring in English and women's and gender studies at Columbia, where she has a near-perfect GPA heading into her senior year. Last year, she participated in pro-Palestinian protests on campus, and on March 5, she took part in a demonstration at Barnard College. She and other protesters were charged with a misdemeanor that has since been dismissed. Four days later, ICE agents turned up at the home where Chung's parents live in Virginia seeking to detain her, court documents detail. ICE told Chung's counsel that her permanent resident status was being 'revoked.' ICE surveilled Chung's dormitory at Columbia for days and obtained a judicial warrant to search the building, according to a court filing. Her lawyers have argued that ICE's actions are 'part of a larger pattern of attempted U.S. government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech' focused on students who speak out in support of Palestinians and who are critical of the Israeli government. 'Officials at the highest echelons of government are attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike,' they wrote.
CBS News
29-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Columbia University student Yunseo Chung due in court to fight deportation
Lawsuit filed by Columbia student who says ICE officials tried to detain and deport her Lawsuit filed by Columbia student who says ICE officials tried to detain and deport her Lawsuit filed by Columbia student who says ICE officials tried to detain and deport her Columbia University student Yunseo Chung has a court hearing on her deportation case Thursday in New York City. Protesters are expected to gather outside the courthouse around noon. Chung, a 21-year-old Korean native and green card holder, is suing the federal government after she learned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wanted to deport her. ICE alleges she engaged in what it calls pro-Hamas protests, which she denies. Chung's lawsuit claims ICE started targeting her after she was arrested and given a citation during a March 5 protest over Columbia taking disciplinary action against students who had been involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed it was seeking to deport Chung, saying she "engaged in concerning conduct," and characterizing the protest as "pro-Hamas." Chung's attorneys called the idea that her speech in support of Palestinians could jeopardize U.S. foreign policy "a preposterous proposition." Columbia University student Yunseo Chung has a hearing over her deportation case Thursday in Lower Manhattan. Naz Ahmad A judge granted a temporary restraining order to block her deportation back in March. On Wednesday, a judge also blocked the deportation of fellow Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, saying removing him over his beliefs would likely violate the constitution. The judge stopped short of ordering Khalil released from ICE custody in Louisiana, asking his attorneys to further respond to claims he failed to disclose information on his residency application. ICE protest outside immigration court in SoHo Meanwhile on Wednesday, demonstrators clashed with police outside federal immigration court in SoHo. The chaos led to about two dozen people arrested on charges including obstructing government administration. The protest came hours after witnesses reported several people were taken into custody inside the ICE field office. Critics say the Trump administration is now increasingly using immigration hearings as an opportunity to arrest and detain migrants. That's what happened to a Bronx public school student, identified as 20-year-old Dylan from Venezuela. He was in Lower Manhattan for a hearing on his asylum request when he was taken into custody last week. Mayor Eric Adams has refused to get involved in his case.
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ice used ‘false pretenses' for warrant to hunt for Columbia students, lawyers say
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) effectively misled a judge in order to gain access to the homes of students it sought to arrest for their pro-Palestinian activism, attorneys say. A recently unsealed search warrant application shows that Ice told a judge it needed a warrant because the agency was investigating Columbia University for 'harboring aliens'. In reality, attorneys say, Ice used the warrant application as a 'pretext' to try to arrest two students, including one green card holder, in order to deport them. What the unsealed document shows is that the agency 'was manufacturing an allegation of 'harboring', just so agents can get in the door,' Nathan Freed Wessler, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said. 'What Ice was actually trying to do is get into these rooms to arrest them.' The 'harboring aliens' statute is applied to those who 'conceal, harbor, or shield from detection' any immigrant who is not authorized to be in the US. The search warrant, which was first reported by the Intercept, relates to two Columbia University students, Yunseo Chung and Ranjani Srinivasan, whom Ice sought to deport over their purported pro-Palestinian activism. According to the document and other court records, agents had arrived at Columbia's New York campus on 7 March to try to arrest Srinivasan but were unable to enter her dorm room because they did not have a judicial warrant. Two days later, on 9 March, agents arrived at Chung's parents' house to search for her, also without a warrant. On 13 March, an agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an office within Ice, filed the application for a search and seizure warrant with a federal judge in New York, saying that it was investigating Columbia University for 'harboring aliens'. The agent claimed he believed there was 'evidence, fruits and instrumentalities' that could prove the government's case against the university. The federal judge granted the warrant and agents subsequently entered and searched two residences on Columbia's campus. After Chung, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the US since the age of seven, found out about HSI's search, she sued the government to block its effort to arrest and deport her. In the original complaint, attorneys for Chung claimed the search warrant was 'sought and obtained on false pretenses'. Srinivasan, a doctoral student on a student visa, had left the US by then rather than risk arrest. Despite entering the dorm to, as HSI says, investigate whether Columbia was 'harboring aliens', attorneys claim it was used as a pretext to gain access to residences they would not otherwise have been able to enter, in order to carry out the arrests. 'The manner of execution suggests that the agents were searching for the two named students, including Ms Chung, and needed a lawful basis to enter the residences in the hope of arresting the students on encounter,' Chung's attorneys wrote in the March complaint. Chung has since been granted temporary protection from deportation as her case proceeds. The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said in mid-March that the university was under investigation 'for harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus'. It is unclear whether Ice is still investigating Columbia University for 'harboring aliens'. The New York Times recently reported that a separate justice department investigation is seeking a list of names of Columbia students involved in a protest group in order to share it with immigration agents. A Columbia University official with knowledge of the search warrant application said that university had not seen the document before this week, and that the university has complied with subpoenas and judicial warrants when 'required'. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to requests for comment by time of publication. HSI referred all questions to the DHS. Since the Trump administration stepped into office, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has engaged in a little-used authority to rescind green cards and visas held by a number of students around the country who have been involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy. The state department has accused some of them of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist organization, without providing evidence. 'We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,' Rubio said in March on X, formerly known as Twitter. Rubio personally revoked Chung's visa, a memo submitted in her case shows. As Wessler explains, even if the secretary of state revokes someone's legal status, the government is required to engage in the lengthy legal process before attempting to deport them. But, he adds, the government's attempt to use the 'harboring aliens' accusation to enter the building is a worrying escalation by the Trump administration. 'There is a lot of concern by people and organizations for [the Trump administration's] extremely aggressive interpretations of the harboring statute,' Wessler said. 'As this episode illustrates, those interpretations don't hold up to scrutiny.' The ACLU submitted letters to universities and magistrate judges last month, warning them of Ice's attempts to use similar accusations to justify judicial warrants. 'A college or university's normal conduct in providing housing and services to students does not constitute a violation of Section 1324' – the 'harboring aliens' law, one of the ACLU letters states.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge blocks detention of Columbia anti-Israel protester Yunseo Chung
Immigration authorities have been ordered by a federal judge to cease their efforts to arrest a Columbia University student who engaged in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald issued the restraining order on Tuesday, just one day after the student filed her lawsuit. Yunseo Chung, who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old, is suing President Donald Trump and several members of his administration after federal authorities tried to arrest and deport her. In the lawsuit, Chung's attorneys say that the government's pursuit of the Columbia student is an "unjustifiable assault on First Amendment." The lawsuit states that Chung was a participant in the anti-Israel protests, not a leader, and was "one of a large group of college students" expressing "shared concerns" over the war in Gaza. Chung, according to the lawsuit, "visited" the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, a number of tents organized in the center of campus, but does not state whether she stayed there. The lawsuit also makes it clear that she did not make public statements or engage in high-profile activities while at the protests. Israeli Hostages' Families Sue Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia Organizers As Alleged 'Hamas' Propaganda Arm' In Nyc Chung's lawsuit states that she was never arrested or disciplined in relation to events at the encampment. However, she was later arrested during a 2025 protest at Barnard College. The lawsuit claims that it is common in New York City for police to arrest many protesters and that charges are usually dropped or dismissed. The lawsuit states that on March 8, an ICE official signed an administrative arrest warrant for Chung and federal law enforcement went to Chung's parents' house the next day seeking to arrest her. Read On The Fox News App An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official allegedly told Chung's attorneys on March 10 that her green card had been "revoked," according to the lawsuit. The government has the authority to rescind permanent resident status if they believe a person has violated U.S. immigration law. Chung's attorneys say in the lawsuit that law enforcement searched Chung's dorm room on March 13 in accordance with a warrant. Columbia Faculty Hold 'Emergency Vigil' To Protest University Response To Trump "Yunseo Chung has 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 law," a senior DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "Chung will have an opportunity to present her case before an immigration judge." Chung is the latest anti-Israel student protester to face possible deportation. Mahmoud Khalil, who is a green card holder and the spouse of a U.S. citizen, was arrested by ICE earlier this month and faces deportation. Khalil is accused of playing a major role in anti-Israel protests at Columbia University. The Trump administration claims Khalil did not disclose his employment with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). His arrest sparked protests across New York City, with many saying that the Trump administration was violating his right to free speech. The Trump administration has deemed that Khalil and Chung's actions, and those of other student protesters, were in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror organization. "ICE HSI will investigate individuals engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization. Based on investigative findings, the Department of State may make a determination which may result in visa revocation or other action impacting the immigration status of an alien in the U.S. Upon the determination from the Department of State, ICE will take appropriate enforcement actions," a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital's Kitty Le Claire and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this article source: Federal judge blocks detention of Columbia anti-Israel protester Yunseo Chung
