MA Court holds foreign student deportation policy unconstitutional

The federal District Court in Massachusetts (William G. Young), in “perhaps the most important [case] ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court,” has held that non-citizen students lawfully present in the United States have the same free speech rights as American citizens and cannot be arrested and deported because of pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel speech or association.

The case was brought by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association against the Secretary of State, Department of Homeland Security and various other agencies enforcing the governmental policy.  It was decided after a nine-day trial that included testimony about several high-profile arrests and intended deportations.

The Court held that the mode of enforcement of the government’s policy violates the First Amendment rights of free speech and association, and even under a “facially legitimate and bona fide” standard of review was intentionally viewpoint-discriminatory in violation of the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedures Act.

“It was never the Secretaries’ immediate intention to deport all pro-Palestinian non-citizens,” the Court wrote, “for that obvious First Amendment violation could have raised a major outcry.  Rather, the intent of the Secretaries was more invidious — to target a few for speaking out and then use the full rigor of the Immigration and Nationality Act (in ways it had never been used before) to have them publicly deported with the goal of tamping down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated non-citizen (and other) pro-Palestinians into silence because their views were unwelcome.”

The Court also noted that the testimony of ICE agents and officials giving reasons ICE agents wore masks during apprehensions was “disingenuous, squalid, and dishonorable.”

The Court said it would schedule further proceedings to determine an appropriate remedy.  (American Association of University Professors v. Rubio, D. MA, No.25-10685, 9/30/25.)