A federal judge on Thursday unsealed documents showing that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally approved the deportation of university students after receiving memos highlighting their involvement in constitutionally protected campus protests against Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Massachusetts-based Senior Judge William G. Young \u2013 an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan \u2013 unsealed 105 pages of documents<\/a> he initially kept under wraps because they contained details regarding federal investigations. Young granted a request by media outlets including the New York Times<\/a><\/em> to unseal the files as a matter of public interest.<\/p>\n Last year, Young ruled<\/a> that the Trump administration broke the law by targeting pro-Palestine student activists in a bid to \u201cunconstitutionally… chill freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n The unsealed documents include Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos recommending that five student activists who were legally in the United States \u2013 Yunseo Chung, Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Badar Khan Suri, and R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk\u2014be deported, despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are few things more un-American than masked agents throwing dissenters in the back of a van because the government doesn\u2019t like what they have to say,\u201d Conor Fitzpatrick, supervising senior attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) \u2013 which sued the administration over the unconstitutionality of its efforts \u2013 said Friday in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBut these documents prove that it was the students\u2019 opinions alone, and not any criminal activity, that led to handcuffs and deportation proceedings,\u201d Fitzpatrick added. \u201cThe First Amendment<\/a> means the government cannot punish speakers for their opinions, but that is exactly what the government is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n