The student was arrested on March 5 for “obstruction of governmental administration” but mere days was advised that her lawful resident status was being revoked.
A Columbia University student who participated in pro-Palestine protests is suing US President Donald Trump and other government officials for attempting to deport her.
“The government’s actions are an unprecedented and unjustifiable assault on First Amendment and other rights, one that cannot stand basic legal scrutiny,” the lawsuit, filed on Monday, by attorneys for Yunseo Chung stated.
Chung, 21, a legal permanent resident of the US, was arrested last month along with other students at a sit-in and protest outside of an academic building on campus.
“Ms. Chung was outside the building on that day to protest what she believed to be excessive punishments meted out by the Columbia administration to student protesters facing campus disciplinary proceedings,” according to the court papers shared by the New York Times.
It noted that Chung had previously faced a university disciplinary process which resulted in a finding that she was “not in violation” of any university policy, and she “wanted to support her fellow students by attending the protest.”
Upon her arrest, Chung was given a “Desk Appearance Ticket’ by the New York Police Department (NYPD) for “obstruction of governmental administration” – a common citation issued by police at protests, the papers said.
Mere days later, however, the federal government “began a series of unlawful efforts to arrest, detain, and remove” Chung from the country.
ICE Agents’ Action
The petition states that it appears that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official signed an administrative arrest warrant for Chung on March 8.
On March 9, ICE arrived at Chung’s parents’ home looking for her, and on March 10, a federal law enforcement official “advised Ms. Chung’s counsel” that her lawful permanent resident status is being “revoked.”
On March 13, the court papers continue, federal agents “executed a judicial search warrant at two Columbia-owned residences” including Chung’s dormitory, “seeking documents, including any occupancy or lease agreements, travel records, and immigration records – even though the warrant ostensibly targeted Columbia itself, not Ms. Chung.”
Rubio Named
Chung’s lawsuit names Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and other officials.
The court papers cite Rubio as having ordered Chung’s legal status revoked. Chung arrived in the US at the age of seven from South Korea and became a lawful permanent resident in 2021.
Mahmoud Khalil
Earlier this month, federal immigration agents detained fellow Columbia graduate, Mahmoud Khalil, who was active in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the university last year.
Khalil, 30, also a lawful permanent resident, was told upon his arrest that his green card was being revoked. He is currently being held in an ICE detention center in Louisiana, with his legal team scheduled to return to court next month over his possible deportation.
His detention followed US President Donald Trump’s “executive orders prohibiting ant-Semitism,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement following his arrest. The statement claimed that he had “led activities aligned to Hamas.”
‘First Arrest of Many’
In a social media post, Trump defended Khalil’s arrest, saying it was “the first arrest of many to come.”
“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” said Trump, vowing to “find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again.”
Last week, federal immigration agents detained a Georgetown University researcher amid the American administration’s clampdown on student activists.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow, was arrested outside his home in Virginia and told his visa had been revoked, according to a lawsuit filed last Tuesday, cited by Politico.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, alleged on X that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”
(PC, Al Mayadeen)
Dondolf Twitler supports the ZioNazis, therefore he is supporting terrorists. He is putting them first, ahead of his own country. That is High Treason. Nazinyahu colluded with Hamas in 2006, therefore
” Israel ” colluded with, so-called, terrorists. America and ” Israel ” are murdering semitic people, indigenous to Palestine, and denouncing, defaming anyone who is Palestinian, therefore they are both guilty of antisemitism. Deport Trump, Rubio, and anyone who violates our Constitutional rights. They are anti-American for going against the Constitution: even worse, using it against us.
Encourage Hamdan Hallal to take on the role of the Palestinian Mandela… in him, the Palestinian Mandela has arrived… He may have to leave israel to do it, but his brief arrest and senseless cruel beating shows that israel is too afraid to try to destroy him… He has been honored by the West which has awarded him the Oscar, and so the West cannot attack him either… In a foreign Nation, he will be safe… and his voice will be like moral thunder!