Columbia Student Protester Sues U.S. to Prevent Deportation

The Washington Post

11:42 JST, March 26, 2025

A Columbia University student who came to the United States at the age of 7 from South Korea sued the Trump administration on Monday, seeking to avoid deportation. The complaint from Yunseo Chung, 21, alleges that although she is a lawful U.S. permanent resident, the federal government is seeking to remove her from the country because of speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

Chung, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests last year, joined a demonstration this month protesting what she believed to be excessive punishments meted out by the Columbia administration to student demonstrators, the complaint says. She was arrested, charged with obstruction of governmental administration and released by New York police. Days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at her parents’ home looking for her. The next day, the agents told Chung’s attorney that her permanent legal status was being revoked. Agents also searched her dormitory at Columbia, the complaint says.

ICE is seeking to detain Chung, her attorneys said Monday, and the lawsuit filed in a New York district court requests an emergency order to block her from being detained, transferred outside the district or deported. It also asks that the court find the grounds for her attempted deportation – which “upon information and belief” are that Chung’s activities could have damaged U.S. foreign policy interests – unlawful.

The suit names President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and two ICE officials. Chung’s complaint alleges that “officials at the highest echelons of government are attempting to use immigration enforcement as a bludgeon to suppress speech that they dislike.”

Chung’s complaint goes on to state that immigration enforcement “may not be used as a tool to punish noncitizen speakers who express political views disfavored by the current administration.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said Chung had “engaged in concerning conduct, including when she was arrested by NYPD during a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard College. She is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws. Chung will have an opportunity to present her case before an immigration judge.”

The spokesperson said the agency will investigate individuals engaged in activities in support of Hamas. “Based on investigative findings, the Department of State may make a determination which may result in visa revocation or other action impacting the immigration status of an alien in the U.S. Upon the determination from the Department of State, ICE will take appropriate enforcement actions.”

In an emailed statement, Chung’s attorney Jordan Wells said that “like generations of American college students before her, our client has joined with her peers to express heartfelt political beliefs.”

“That her political speech and association in support of Palestinian rights jeopardizes U.S. foreign policy is a preposterous proposition,” he added.

Several non-U.S. citizens accused of pro-Hamas speech or activity have faced the threat of deportation under the Trump administration.

Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder who is married to an American, was arrested by ICE about two weeks ago and detained in Louisiana. The Columbia graduate student was born in Syria and has Palestinian heritage, and had negotiated with administrators on behalf of student protesters last year.

At least two other Columbia students accused of “advocating for violence and terrorism” related to the war in Gaza were arrested on the basis of an expired visa or voluntarily left the U.S. after a visa revocation this month, according to DHS.

The crackdown has also impacted other universities. Indian national Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University on a J-1 temporary visa, was detained by ICE last week over social media posts and because his wife, a U.S. citizen, is the daughter of a former Hamas adviser, according to DHS.

Brown University assistant professor and kidney transplant specialist Rasha Alawieh, accused of attending the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, was deported to Lebanon on March 14 despite a restraining order to keep her in the country.

Columbia was the center of last year’s student protests calling for an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, which started on Oct. 7, 2023, when the militant group Hamas surged into southern Israel and seized about 250 hostages in an attack that killed about 1,200 people. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, after Israel declared war in the enclave.

The Trump administration this month said it would cancel $400 million in federal contracts and grants to Columbia over what Education Secretary Linda McMahon said was “violence, intimidation and antisemitic harassment” on its campus.

The university has announced policy changes such as plans to bring in new campus police officers with the power to arrest students, ban protests in academic buildings and review its department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies, the Center for Palestine Studies and similar academic entities.

It announced expulsions, multiyear suspensions, temporary degree revocations and other punishments for students who the university said had violated rules while protesting. Critics have called its measures a capitulation to the administration’s demands at the expense of academic freedom and the defense of free speech.