Overview

• In a 161-page ruling, U.S. District Judge William G. Young found that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio coordinated visa revocations, arrests and removal efforts to chill pro‑Palestinian speech.
• The court held that immigration enforcement cannot be based on protected political expression and confirmed that noncitizens lawfully in the U.S. enjoy the same free‑speech rights as citizens.
• Trial testimony showed HSI analysts reviewed roughly 5,000 names and produced about 200 investigative reports, with many leads stemming from the Canary Mission website and with masked ICE tactics condemned as intended to intimidate.
• The ruling details a nationwide chilling effect on campus expression, citing high‑profile detentions of activists including Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk and faculty testimony about self‑censorship.
• Judge Young reserved remedies for a later phase, the administration has signaled it will appeal, and several individual deportation cases for student activists remain active.