Yunseo Chung Columbia South Korean student files lawsuit against Trump administration to stop ‘illegal’ deportation of permanent resident student participating in campus activism, with suit alleging, Trump has sought to use the threat of deportation as a wedge against First Amendment rights to free speech and protest. Student goes into hiding as feds hunt her…
And it continues… A Columbia University student who who was arrested earlier this month after taking part in campus protests against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and is now facing deportation has sued President Trump and other high-ranking officials to stop the feds from ‘illegally’ throwing her out of the country. The suit comes as the student has since gone into hiding according to her lawyers…
Lawyers for Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old permanent resident, who first migrated to the U.S from her native South Korea with her family when she was seven years old, allege that their client was a victim of ‘shocking overreach’ by the federal government, which is seeking to deport her because of her political views despite her constitutionally protected rights to protest.
Columbia student sues Trump admin for over-reach and assault of First Amendment rights
The student’s filed lawsuit seeks to stop the deposition and the ‘pattern and practice of targeting individuals associated with protests for Palestinian rights for immigration enforcement,’ adding that Chung’s detainment came around the same time as Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest earlier this month.
Of note, student protesters have always maintained their actions have never been in support of armed opposition against Israel offences but rather demonstrations against the ‘unjust overbearing use of force’ against Palestinian civilians along with student demands that Columbia University divest itself from Israel after the International Court of Justice last year found Israel had ‘plausibly’ committed acts of genocide.
‘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 states.
Chung’s filed lawsuit states that immigration officials signed an administrative arrest warrant for Chung on March 8, the same time Khalil was arrested. Like Khalil, her permanent resident status means she does not need a student visa.
Columbia student Yunseo Chung goes into hiding as she’s sought by the Feds
At the time of her arrest, Chung was charged with obstructing governmental administration and issued a desk appearance ticket by the NYPD the nypost reports.
A few days later, Department of Homeland Security agents visited Chung’s parents’ home searching for her as a federal agent reached out to the student around the same time via text message, according to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court.
When an attorney representing Chung contacted the agent, she was told the State Department was revoking Chung’s legal status and had an administrative warrant for her arrest.
The filed lawsuit states, Chung, a promising student who was valedictorian at high school and excelled at college, taking part in campus protests beginning in 2023. However, Chung did not have a high-profile, public role in the pro-Palestinian movement or speak to the press, the suit alleges.
The suit names President Donald Trump and other cabinet members as defendants, including, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as well as acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons and acting ICE New York Field Office Director William P. Joyce.
It accused the government of using the threat of deportation as ‘a tool to punish non-citizen speakers who express political views disfavored by the current administration.’
Of note, Chung had faced a school disciplinary proceeding last year after she plastered posters that stated that members of the Columbia Board of Trustees were ‘Wanted for Complicity in Genocide.’ The school ultimately found she did not violate any rules.
As of Monday, Chung was not arrested nor in federal custody, with her lawyers refusing to tell the New York Times where she is other than to confirm she is still in the country.
‘The government’s plans to arrest and deport Yunseo Chung violate the First Amendment,’ Joshua Colangelo-Bryan of Human Rights First, one of the groups legally representing her, said in a statement to NBC News.
President Trump, who called Khalil a ‘Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student’ and promised more arrests of student protesters, has yet to publicly mention Yunseo’s case.
Chung’s legal team has filed a petition for habeas corpus, which means that an authority is compelled to bring someone before a court to determine the legality of their detention.
Unlike citizenship, legal permanent resident status can be revoked if an individual leaves the United States for more than a year without a return card or if they engage in criminal or harmful activity.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to date have not respond to media overtures for comment.
And then there were these comments on the web that caught this author’s attention. See what you think?
‘Being arrested for participating in an illegal activity has nothing to do with free speech.‘
‘The key takeaway is that supporting Hamas comes with consequences. These protesters are free to act as they wish in their native countries.’
‘Protesting is a protected constitutional right, one is assumed innocent until PROVEN guilty. She has been charged, not convicted except apparently in the minds of Trump supporters who don’t believe in the due process of law.’
‘Either be grateful to be in this great country & NOT support terrorists, or get out.’
‘She is protesting Jews but not North Koreans?
