The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed a ruling by a federal judge that government officials unconstitutionally violated the free speech rights of pro-Palestinian students as they sought to deport international students and scholars, including Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University’s Rumeysa Ozturk, for expressing pro-Palestinian, anti-genocide views.
U.S. District Court Judge William Young wrote in his ruling in a case filed by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association: “This Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with the subordinate officials and, agents of each of them, deliberately and with purposeful aforethought, did so concert their actions and those of their two departments intentionally to chill the rights to freedom of speech and peacefully to assemble of the non-citizen plaintiff members of the plaintiff associations.”
SEE: Judge finds the Trump administration unconstitutionally targeted noncitizens over Gaza war protests – Associated Press
In a statement, CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas, Esq., said:
“This ruling is a historic affirmation of the constitutional rights of all people in America — citizens and non-citizens alike — to speak out against injustice without fear of government retaliation. The Trump administration’s deliberate targeting of pro-Palestinian voices, including international students, represents a disturbing abuse of power. We thank Judge Young for upholding the rule of law and reaffirming that free speech is not contingent on political convenience or immigration status.”
The Washington, D.C., based Muslim civil rights organization is calling on current federal leadership to ensure such abuses are not repeated and to protect the rights of individuals peacefully advocating for human rights and justice.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com