NEW YORK (news agencies) — A Columbia University student from South Korea who is facing potential deportation for her involvement in a pro-Palestinian protest can’t be taken into immigration detention for now, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The order marks at least a temporary reprieve for Yunseo Chung, and a setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to throw noncitizens out of the country for participating in campus protests that the government deems antisemitic and sympathetic to the militant group Hamas. The students say the government is targeting them for advocating for Palestinian rights.
“As of today, Yunseo Chung no longer has to fear and live in fear of ICE coming to her doorstep and abducting her in the night,” Chung attorney Ramzi Kassem said after court, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As a Manhattan federal judge considered Chung’s case Tuesday, another federal jurist in Syracuse considered the case of Cornell University doctoral student Momodou Taal. He also faces potential deportation after being at a protest.
In Chung’s case, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said government lawyers have not yet laid out enough facts about their claims to detain the student while her case plays out.
Chung, 21, came to the U.S. at age 7 and later attained legal permanent residency, known colloquially as a green card.
In a statement Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said Chung had “engaged in concerning conduct,” including being arrested at a protest. But Buchwald said the government hadn’t filed anything that indicated the student was dangerous or communicated with terrorists.
“Nor was it clear why Ms. Chung would pose potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” the judge said, citing a rationale that President Donald Trump’s administration has invoked in Chung’s case and those of other student protesters it’s seeking to deport.
“What is the issue with permitting her to stay in the community and not be subjected to ICE detention while the parties participate in rational, orderly briefing?” Buchwald asked, using a legal term for fleshing out arguments in court filings.
She set dates for those next month, with oral arguments to follow May 20.
Government lawyer Jeffrey Oestericher told Buchwald he couldn’t consent to the temporary block on detaining Chung, “but I take your point.”
Chung wasn’t at the hearing. About a dozen supporters watched quietly from the court audience.
In a lawsuit Monday, Chung’s lawyers said immigration officials moved to deport her after she was among protesters arrested after a sit-in at a library on the nearby Barnard College campus this month. Her suit said she was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing government administration after getting stuck in a crowd that couldn’t move when police ordered it to. Police released her with a court date, and Columbia suspended her, according to the suit.
Days later, officials told her lawyer that her permanent resident status was being revoked and that the government was seeking to arrest her. Agents came looking for her at her parents’ home and searched her Columbia dorm, according to the suit. She evidently wasn’t there.
Taal, the Cornell student, got a notice last week to surrender to immigration authorities after he sued on March 15 to try to preempt deportation efforts.
The 31-year-old, who’s pursuing a doctorate in Africana studies, is a British and Gambian citizen.
In a court filing, the Justice Department said Taal’s student visa was revoked for his alleged involvement in “disruptive protests” that disregarded university policies and created a hostile environment for Jewish students. Cornell has suspended Taal twice, most recently in the fall after a group of pro-Palestinian activists disrupted a campus career fair.
At Tuesday’s hearing in Syracuse, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Coombe asked why Taal’s challenge to his potential removal should play out before her, not an immigration judge.
Taal’s attorney, Eric Lee, argued that the case is about free speech, not just immigration.
“The government is going around and taking people for protesting,” Lee said.
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