Boston Judge Rules Visa Removals for Gaza Protests Unconstitutional

A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday found that efforts by the Trump administration to deport noncitizens for protesting the war in Gaza violated the First Amendment, ruling in favor of several university associations that had challenged what they described as an ideological deportation policy. U.S. District Judge William Young made the determination after a trial in which both sides presented testimony about whether visa revocations and removals were motivated by protected political speech.

Attorneys for the university groups argued the administration had launched a coordinated campaign to target students and scholars who criticized Israel or expressed sympathy for Palestinians, creating a chilling effect on campus expression. "Not since the McCarthy era have immigrants been the target of such intense repression for lawful political speech," Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told the court. Plaintiffs' witnesses described memos and actions they said demonstrated an effort to identify and remove critics.

Government lawyers countered that there was no formal policy to revoke visas on the basis of protected speech and that revocations...