A Korean student at Columbia University, who is a legal permanent US resident and took part in pro-Palestinian protests, lodged a lawsuit against the administration of President Donald Trump on Monday to prevent her deportation, a court filing showed.
Yunseo Chung has lived in the US since she was seven, but her legal team was told two weeks ago that her lawful permanent resident status was being revoked, the filing in the District Court for the Southern District of New York showed.
The Trump administration says her US presence hinders its foreign policy agenda, according to the lawsuit. Ms Chung has not yet been arrested. Immigration agents have made several visits to her residences looking for her.
Actions against her "form part of a larger pattern of attempted US government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech", the lawsuit said.
"The government's repression has focused specifically on university students who speak out in solidarity with Palestinians and who are critical of the Israeli government's ongoing military campaign in Gaza."
Ms Chung is in her third year at Columbia and was reportedly cleared of wrongdoing during disciplinary proceedings related to her protest activities.
Momodou Taal, a dual Gambian-British citizen in the US on a student visa who took part in pro-Palestine protests at Cornell University in New York, has been told to turn himself in to immigration authorities for deportation.
Mr Taal is also suing the Trump administration, saying that deportations of pro-Palestinian activists breach free speech protected under the First Amendment.
"Anything that shows solidarity of Palestine is being mischaracterised quite erroneously as anti-Semitism. That’s the way in which they are trying to get us to stop speaking about Palestine," he told The Intercept.
The lawsuits follow the detention of other students at Columbia who are legal permanent residents or on valid visas after they took part in the pro-Palestine protest movement that swept university campuses across the country last year.
Mahmoud Khalil, a former graduate student of Palestinian descent who chosen to negotiate with the university administration, was arrested at his residence in New York and told his green card had been revoked.
And last week, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen studying at Georgetown University in Washington, was arrested and accused of having ties to Hamas.
Mr Trump has vowed to deport pro-Palestinian activists who have taken part in protests on US university campuses against Israel's war in Gaza. He has claimed the protesters are anti-Semitic and support Hamas militants.
