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A Columbia College junior who was arrested earlier this month throughout an anti-Israel protest and is now dealing with deportation sued President Trump and different high-ranking officers Monday to cease the feds from throwing her in another country.
Immigration authorities are trying to deport 21-year-old Yunseo Chung — who moved to the USA from South Korea practically 15 years in the past together with her household — at a time when the Trump administration has mentioned it desires besides non-citizens who officers deem a menace to overseas coverage.
Chung, who’s a authorized everlasting resident and has referred to as the US dwelling since she was 7 years outdated, was not in federal custody as of Monday. Her lawyer wouldn’t inform the New York Occasions the place she presently was apart from to substantiate she was nonetheless within the nation.
The faculty pupil apparently landed on the feds’ radar after she and different college students have been arrested on March 5 throughout a sit-in at a Barnard tutorial constructing in protest of punishments the Columbia-affiliated school doled out to anti-Israel agitators.
She was charged with obstructing governmental administration and issued a desk look ticket by the NYPD.
Just a few days later Division of Homeland Safety brokers visited Chung’s mother and father’ dwelling looking for her as a federal agent reached out to the scholar across the similar time through textual content message, in line with the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court docket.
When an legal professional representing Chung contacted the agent, she was informed the State Division was revoking Chung’s authorized standing and had an administrative warrant for her arrest, the authorized papers state.
The lawsuit additionally revealed her dorm was amongst two Columbia-owned residences raided by federal legislation enforcement on March 13 – which interim college President Katrina Armstrong mentioned on the time she was “heartbroken” by.
Chung’s authorized staff argued the actions by the Trump administration have been an try and “chill” her free speech.
“The federal government’s retaliation in opposition to Ms. Chung is available in a broader context of retaliation in opposition to different noncitizens who’ve exercised their First Modification rights,” her authorized staff argued.
“Officers on the highest ranges of the federal authorities have made clear that they intend to make use of immigration enforcement to punish noncitizens who converse out in assist of Palestinians and Palestinian rights, or who’re perceived to have engaged in such speech.”
A Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson informed the Occasions Chung “engaged in regarding conduct, together with when she was arrested by NYPD throughout a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard School. She is being hunted for elimination proceedings below the immigration legal guidelines.”
A small handful of anti-Israel demonstrators have confronted potential deportation – most notably former Columbia pupil Mahmoud Khalil who was entrance and middle throughout tense protests final yr on the elite college.
Khalil, who arrived within the US in 2022 to pursue a grasp’s diploma, initially had a pupil visa earlier than he turned a everlasting resident two years later.
He was taken into custody on March 8 and is presently detained at a Louisiana facility as his legal professionals and the federal authorities conflict over his future within the nation.
Chung confronted a faculty disciplinary continuing final yr after she plastered posters that said Columbia Board of Trustees have been “Wished for Complicity in Genocide,” however the college in the end discovered she didn’t violate any guidelines.
The lawsuit, which additionally lists Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Legal professional Basic Pamela Bondi, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem and different Trump officers, calls on a choose to scrap the federal government’s deportation of Chung and defend her from arrest within the meantime.
The Submit has sought remark from the State Division, Legal professional Basic’s Workplace and Division of Homeland Safety.
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