Overview

• U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston found the arrests and deportation attempts of noncitizen students over pro‑Palestine protests unconstitutional and described the policy as arbitrary and capricious.
• The ruling rejects the administration’s position that foreign students lack the same free‑speech rights as citizens, stating that the First Amendment protects their political expression.
• Court testimony showed DHS relied on lists compiled by pro‑Israel organizations to decide whom to target and created a special unit that investigated more than 5,000 campus critics of Israel.
• Young wrote that senior officials, including Secretaries Kristi Noem and Marco Rubio, encouraged detention, deportation and visa revocation based solely on political speech.
• The opinion cited the detentions of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk and former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil as emblematic cases, and the judge said he will announce corrective measures.