Columbia student sues Trump admin over deportation threat for pro-Palestine view
Chung, who has been living in the US since the age of 7, has sought a court order to block Trump administration's efforts to deport pro-Palestine protesters.
Amid Trump administration's ongoing crackdown of pro-Palestine students at New York's Columbia university, another student on Monday claimed that president Donald Trump's officials are targeting her for deportation over her pro-Palestinian views.
The 21-year-old lawful permanent resident, Yunseo Chung, filed a lawsuit against the same, accusing immigration officials of using the same tactics used on Mahmoud Khalil and other similar students, a report from The Associated Press said.
Chung said that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took action towards deporting her after her arrest on March 5 while she was demonstrating the Ivy League school's disciplinary actions against student protesters.
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At the time, it was reported that Chung was among the group of protesters who were arrested after a sit-in at a library adjacent Barnard College campus.
In her lawsuit, Chung said that within days of being arrested, ICE officials showed up at the doorsteps of her parents' residence with a signed administrative arrest warrant to detain her.
Living in US since age 7
The Columbia junior was informed on March 10 by a federal law official that her lawful permanent resident status was being "revoked".
Just three days later, law enforcement agents went to execute search warrants at two of Columbia's residences, including Chung's dormitory. She said that they were looking for her travel and immigration records, among other documents.
Chung, who has been living in the US since emigrating from South Korea with her parents at the age of seven, is seeking a court order to block Trump administration's efforts to deport all citizens who took part in pro-Palestine protests.
She is requesting a judge to prevent the administration from detaining her, moving her out of New York, or the City removing her from the country while her lawsuit is still in play.
Chung's lawsuit, which was filed in a Manhattan federal court, said, "ICE's shocking actions against Ms Chung form part of a larger pattern of attempted US government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech."
It added that the officials at the highest of posts in the government "are attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike, including Ms Chung's speech".
Pro-Palestine student protesters
The lawsuit also cited Trump administration's efforts to deport five other students who have been vocal about their pro-Palestinian views, including Khalil and Cornell University's Momodou Taal.
Last week, Taal received a notice to surrender to immigration authorities after he sued on March 5 to prevent any deportation attempts.
31-year-old Taal, a PhD student in Africana studies, is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia.
According to a court filing, the justice department said that Taal's student visa was revoked before he filed his lawsuit for his alleged involvement in "disruptive protests" that "disregarded" university policies and created a "hostile environment" for Jewish students.
However, agents of the immigration department had trouble locating him, the justice department added.
Meanwhile, Taal's lawyer Eric Lee on Monday said that his client is not required to surrender before a hearing in the lawsuit on Tuesday in Syracuse.
ALSO READ | US claims Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil covered up working for UN's Palestinian relief agency
Taal was suspended by Cornell university for a second time last fall after a pro-Palestinian student activists group obstructed a campus career fair.
Taal's lawsuit argues that Trump's executive orders aiming to crackdown on students with pro-Palestinian views is a violation of the free speech rights of international students and scholars. He claimed that he was at the career fair protest for five minutes and had faced no criminal charges.
"If the First Amendment does not protect the right to attend a demonstration, what's left? Not much," Lee said.
The Trump administration, on the other hand, has been citing a rarely-invoked legal statute to authorise the secretary of state in revoking the visas of non-citizens who could allegedly be considered a threat to the US' foreign policy interests.
ALSO READ | US revokes visa of Indian scholar at Columbia University for ‘advocating violence, terrorism'
Earlier this month, the US Department of Homeland Security agents arrested Mahmoud, student at Columbia university's School of International and Public Affairs, from his residence.
Khalil was at the forefront of negotiation with school administrators on behalf of the pro-Palestinian student protesters. His detention was one of the first efforts made by Trump to fulfil his promise to seek deportation of some foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protest activities.
The Trump administration dubbed Khalil's prominent role in the protests as an antisemitic support for Hamas, a US-designated terror group.
In the most recent development in Khalil's case, the US government on Sunday alleged that Khalil withheld information about working for UN relief and works agency for Palestine.
Dismissing a series of narratives floating around, Khalil's lawyer termed the allegations as "plainly thin", adding that the government would have to prove any omission was willful and materially important.
(with AP inputs)
