WASHINGTON - A federal judge has found Trump officials abused their power to silence legitimate pro-Palestinian critics, and demanded freedom of speech.
Federal District Judge William Young, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem abused their power in a deportation campaign.
"They do so in order to strike fear into the same non-citizen pro-Palestinian individual who is located, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing legitimate pro-Palestinian speech and deliberately denying that individual... the freedom of speech which is their right," Young wrote.
"In addition, the impact of this targeted deportation process continues to unconstitutionally chill free speech to this day."
The ruling is a major rebuke to the Trump administration's efforts to punish non-citizens who participated in campus activism against the war in Gaza last year.
Rubio said he revoked the visas of hundreds of students - including legal permanent residents - for their Palestinian activism.
The case was brought by the Association of American University Professors, which has been pushing back against Trump's campaign to reshape higher education to be more in line with his right-wing worldview.
During the trial, federal officials admitted relying on the Mission Canary - a shadowy doxxing website described by critics as a hate group - to identify foreign students to be expelled.
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