Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia University student and United States permanent resident, has taken legal action against the Trump administration to halt her deportation. Chung has refiled with the U.S. She claims that the authorities are prosecuting her because she is a pro-Palestinian activist, just like authorities have done to other college activists. This legal tussle comes on the heels of President Trump’s pledge to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters.
Chung on the scene at a pro-Hamas anti-Israel protest where she was arrested. The actions of the Department of Homeland Security should raise alarm bells. Chung’s attorney Eric Lee confirmed that Chung does not have to surrender prior to the lawsuit hearing. This offers some comfort from any short-term legal threat. Chung is still technically working to obtain a court order. She wants to prevent the administration from being able to detain her, or move her detention from New York City and eventually, she fears, from the country.
Chung's lawsuit highlights the Trump administration's broader efforts to deport non-citizens involved in campus protests against Israel's war on Gaza. She claims that the government’s response is a symptom of a wider movement to repress exhibition-goers’ constitutionally protected speech. This even covers efforts to criminalize protest tactics.
"ICE’s shocking actions against Ms Chung form part of a larger pattern of attempted US government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech," the lawsuit claims.
Chung immigrated to the United States from South Korea with her parents when she was only seven-years-old. Now, she is up against the overwhelming threat of being deported from the very country she has spent the better part of her life in. Her demand for relief, legal petition, stems from the same types of cases. The administration has pursued five additional students for their activism on behalf of pro-Palestinian causes.
Chung’s next chance to make her case will be in an appearance before an immigration judge if she is even granted one. Her legal team is arguing for her right to remain in the US and continue her studies at Columbia University. The outcome of this case could set a precedent for how student activists engaged in similar causes are treated by immigration authorities.
