ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Has the Trump administration been violating free speech rights by trying to deport foreign-born students who protested in support of Palestinians? A federal judge will soon rule on that constitutional question after a two-week trial that wrapped up today in Boston. NPR's Adrian Florido has been following the case. Hey, Adrian.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Tell us what this case is about and who brought it.
FLORIDO: Well, it was brought by the American Association of University Professors and other academic groups, and they argue that the government has this concerted policy to target foreign students for deportation for protesting in support of Palestinian rights or for criticizing Israel. And they asked this federal judge, William Young, to declare this policy unconstitutional and order the government to stop trying to deport students for their protests or political views.
Now, Ari, there are some core questions in this case. One is, do noncitizens have the same constitutional right to free speech as U.S. citizens? And another is, is the government violating that right by trying to deport these student protesters?
SHAPIRO: So tell us about the evidence and testimony that were presented. What came up in the trial?
FLORIDO: Well, we heard from several noncitizen university protesters who said that since the government moved to deport Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk and other students whose arrests became high-profile incidents, that these professors now self-censor because they fear being detained or deported. They stopped publishing articles critical of Israeli policy. They stopped protesting. They stopped speaking in public. This was testimony that was meant to show that these arrests have chilled free speech, which the plaintiffs argue has always been the government's goal here - to silence pro-Palestinian voices.
We also learned from testimony how the government identified protesters for potential deportation. ICE officials testified in court that they got most of their names - thousands of them - by looking at Canary Mission. This is a secretly run pro-Israel website that identifies student activists and accuses them of antisemitism or of supporting Hamas terrorism against Israel. And based in part on this list, ICE intelligence officers then wrote up dossiers on about 200 noncitizens so that the State Department could consider revoking their visas or green cards.
SHAPIRO: Did the trial shed any light on how the State Department decided which of those students' visas or green cards to go after?
FLORIDO: It did. We heard testimony from John Armstrong. He oversees visas at the State Department, and he took action on some of these dossiers. He revoked Tufts grad student Rumeysa Ozturk's visa over an op-ed she wrote in the school paper, and he recommended that Secretary of State Marco Rubio cancel Mahmoud Khalil's green card. And he testified in court that he considers anti-Israel views to be antisemitic. And he said criticizing Israel's actions in Gaza or chanting, you know, something like, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free - that those things could be enough to get a visa revoked.
He did say that officials consider - in his words - the totality of circumstances in each student's case, but he also stressed that part of the government's goal here in expelling students it believes are antisemitic or pro-Hamas is to prevent terrorism. He said if it gets this stuff wrong, it could mean another September 11.
SHAPIRO: Well, today was closing arguments. What did the lawyers on both sides have to say?
FLORIDO: Well, Ramya Krishnan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, summarized their main point this way. She said, quote, "if noncitizens can be deported based on their political speech, then they have no First Amendment rights at all because they must always worry that their political speech will displease those in power." And she said the judge should block the government's policy to deport protesters for their pro-Palestinian views.
For their part, Justice Department lawyers said there is no policy here. They said that ICE and the State Department are doing the same work they've always done to vet and deport people, with a new focus now on carrying out President Trump's executive orders to prevent terrorist attacks and fight antisemitism. Now, government lawyers also argued that noncitizens do not have the same rights to free speech as U.S. citizens, especially when issues of national security are concerned. So the judge wrapped up today saying that he's got a lot to consider and doesn't expect to rule before September.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Adrian Florido, thank you.
FLORIDO: Thank you, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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