A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A federal judge in Boston has ruled that the Trump administration is violating the Constitution by trying to deport non-U.S. citizens just because they've protested in support of Palestinians or criticized Israel. U.S. District Court Judge William Young on Tuesday called it possibly the most important case ever to reach the federal court he serves on. NPR's Adrian Florido has been covering this. What did the judge have to say in his ruling?
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Well, Judge Young called the Trump administration's attempts to deport noncitizens because of their Palestinian activism unconstitutional, violations of their rights to free speech. He wrote that it's carrying out a full-throated assault on the First Amendment. The evidence, A, presented during a nine-day trial that the judge held in July, he wrote, clearly showed that Homeland Security and State Department officials have been misusing their powers to silence protesters' protected political speech. And he wrote that he was especially disturbed by the methods immigration agents have been using to arrest people, especially their use of face masks, which the judge wrote seemed intended to, quote, "terrorize Americans into quiescence."
MARTÍNEZ: You know, a lot of these pro-Palestinian students that ICE agents started arresting and trying to deport soon after Trump took office have their own cases going against...
FLORIDO: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: ...The government. So who brought this particular case, and why?
FLORIDO: Well, this case was brought by several academic associations, and their goal was to convince the judge that the government has what they call an ideological deportation policy aimed at silencing the specific pro-Palestinian academics that were being arrested, but also aimed at scaring others into not speaking up about Palestinian rights. They called government officials to the stand during the trial to prove this, and DHS officials testified that they compiled the names of thousands of pro-Palestinian activists - starting early this year - and created dossiers on many of them. They sent those files to officials at the State Department with recommendations that visas or green cards be revoked, and officials at State testified at trial that they acted on those recommendations.
MARTÍNEZ: How did the government defend itself?
FLORIDO: Well, government lawyers denied that there's a specific policy. They said that officials have simply been using existing immigration laws to go after people that President Trump believes pose a threat to national security. Trump and his top officials often accuse pro-Palestinian activists of being antisemitic and of being supporters of Hamas terrorism. But in his ruling, Judge Young noted the government presented no evidence to back these claims up. So the key question, he wrote, was whether noncitizens legally in the U.S. have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. And here's how he answered that question in writing - quote, "the court answers this constitutional question unequivocally, yes, they do."
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, what's the reaction been?
FLORIDO: Well, in a statement, a DHS spokeswoman called Judge Young - who was appointed by President Reagan, by the way - a, quote, "craven judge" who is smearing and demonizing ICE law enforcement. A lawyer for the academics celebrated the ruling and said that if the First Amendment means anything, it means the government can't imprison people simply because it disagrees with their political views.
MARTÍNEZ: In his ruling, the judge didn't actually tell the government to stop going after these students. So what are the next steps?
FLORIDO: Well, Judge Young said that he will soon hold a hearing to help him decide on a remedy aimed at getting the government to comply with the Constitution. But he also noted that he's worried he won't actually be able to get the government to do that because he wrote that when it comes to laws and regulations, quote, "President Trump simply ignores it all." Those are his words.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Adrian Florido. Thanks a lot.
FLORIDO: Thank you, A.
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