Immigrants and Radicals Have the Same Free Speech Rights as Everyone Else
Campus protests against Israel have revived debates over the limits of First Amendment protections.
J.D. Tuccille | 5.2.2025 7:00 AM
Can foreigners legally residing in the United States be tossed out of the country for engaging in controversial or even vile speech? Court cases suggest the answer is "no" and uphold the idea that free speech is a right adhering not only to Americans but also to those just visiting. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts allowed a lawsuit against the Trump administration's deportation proceedings aimed at noncitizen anti-Israel college radicals to proceed on the grounds that the government is targeting protected speech in such a way that it chills the willingness of foreign university students and faculty at schools in this country to speak out about controversial issues.
Deportations Have a 'Chilling' Effect
Unlike some of the cases that have gone to court (such as that of Mohsen Mahdawi, whose release was ordered by a federal judge on Wednesday) American Association of University Professors v. Rubio doesn't revolve around the conduct of a particular individual. That means there's no grounds to debate whether a given graduate student or professor was engaged in speech alone or if that person crossed over into illegal conduct or support of a terrorist organization. In some cases, such as that of Rümeysa Öztürk, the government has alleged nothing beyond controversial speech. Instead, this case was brought by the American Association of University Professors, that organization's Harvard and New York University chapters, and the Middle East Studies Association alleging the "chilling" of noncitizen members' activities by federal policy.
In their lawsuit against the Trump administration's deportation policies, the plaintiffs allege that members of their organization "have, variously, taken down social media posts and previously published writing and scholarship, stopped assigning material about Palestine in class, withdrawn from a conference presentation, ceased traveling abroad for conferences, ceased engaging in political protest and assembly in which they previously participated, ceased teaching a course they previously taught, and foregone opportunities to write and speak at public events," among other abandoned activities out of fear that they might be targeted for deportation.
https://reason.com/2025/05/02/immigrants-and-radicals-have-the-same-free-speech-rights-as-everyone-else/
