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Visa threats struck down
A federal judge in California ruled Friday that the Trump administration violated the constitutional rights of international students by using immigration provisions to cancel visas and initiate deportation proceedings tied to pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“The government has offered a chilling message regarding protected speech — speak out against Israel or in support of Palestinians and we will revoke your visa and deport you”
U.S. District Judge Noël Wise, appointed by Joe Biden, wrote, “The government has offered a chilling message regarding protected speech — speak out against Israel or in support of Palestinians and we will revoke your visa and deport you,” in a decision tied to a lawsuit filed by Stanford University’s student newspaper, The Stanford Daily.
Wise said the freedoms of speech and the press are “foundational to America's enduring democracy,” and she struck down portions of the provisions the federal government follows regarding deportations.
The ruling described how the Trump administration, from March 2025, began revoking visas and detaining noncitizens who engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus, starting with the arrest of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
PBS reported that the decision largely piggybacks on findings from nearly a year ago by a U.S. district judge in Boston that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it targeted people who are not citizens for deportation solely for supporting Palestinians and criticizing Israel.
FIRE and judge warn
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression attorney Conor Fitzpatrick praised the ruling, saying, “In America, free speech doesn't just belong to the people who say things the government agrees with,” after Wise ruled against the Trump administration’s deportation effort.
Wise warned that the policy could expand beyond pro-Palestinian advocacy, writing in San Jose, “Tomorrow, or perhaps even today, targets may include anyone in the United States who exercises their freedom of speech to simply express opinions the government does not like.”
Reuters reported that Wise chastised the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security for how they deployed provisions of federal immigration law to target noncitizens for deportation for expressing views they wanted to suppress.
The Reuters account said Wise agreed with the student newspaper that when a noncitizen’s speech is the reason behind a visa revocation and deportation determination, “the government is singling out that speech for disfavored treatment based on its viewpoint or content.”
The Hill said Wise’s 90-page ruling found the Trump administration violated students’ First and Fifth Amendments when it relied on two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act to use their speech as a basis for deportation.
What happens next
The ruling’s immediate impact centers on Stanford University’s student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, which said some international students were afraid to speak out because of the deportation threat described by Wise.
“No one should fear speaking up for Palestine”
In a statement shared in the Reuters report, Conor Fitzpatrick said the ruling “proves that free speech isn’t a privilege, but the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child,” while the decision also cited retaliation in March 2025 by U.S. immigration authorities against people who engaged in speech supporting the Palestinians and against Israel's actions.
Al Jazeera reported that Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who is fighting his deportation in a separate case, praised the ruling on Saturday in a post on social media saying, “No one should fear speaking up for Palestine.”
Al Jazeera also said the ruling centered on how the second Trump administration revoked visas and detained international students studying in the US after they engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy, with detentions beginning with Khalil in March 2025.
The Independent added that the decision comes after a different federal court in Massachusetts issued a ruling in September that the administration’s student visa campaign amounted to a “full-throated assault on the First Amendment across the board under the cover of an unconstitutionally broad definition” of antisemitism, and that case is now on appeal.