As the Trump administration continues to crackdown on alleged pro-Hamas agitators on college campuses across the country, foreign students hiding from immigration authorities are adopting another legal strategy — suing before they are even arrested.
The Trump administration is cracking down on the many anti-Israel foreign student protesters who clashed with police, overtook campus property and allegedly harassed Jewish students at universities across the U.S.. The White House, which has made immigration enforcement a top policy priority, has already overseen the detention and deportation of several high-profile foreign nationals allegedly sympathetic to Hamas, a terrorist-designated organization.
Two foreign students — Yunseo Chung of Columbia University and Momodou Taal of Cornell University — are both wanted by federal immigration authorities. While neither have surrendered or been caught by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, both individuals have sued the Trump administration to put a halt to enforcement actions against them. In Chung’s case, she successfully requested a court to block her arrest — at least temporarily.
“This action challenges the government’s shocking overreach in seeking to deport a college student, Plaintiff-Petitioner Yunseo Chung, who is a lawful permanent resident of this country, because of her protected speech,” Chung’s lawyers stated in a lawsuit filed Monday against the Trump administration. “The government’s actions are an unprecedented and unjustifiable assault on First Amendment and other rights, one that cannot stand basic legal scrutiny.”
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