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BOSTON: A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration’s efforts to deport noncitizens who protested the war in Gaza was unconstitutional.
US District Judge William Young in Boston agreed with several university associations that the policy they described as ideological deportation violates the First Amendment.
“This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court –- squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do,’” Young, a nominee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote.
An email to the Homeland Security department for comment was not immediately returned.
The ruling came after a trial during which lawyers for the associations presented witnesses who testified that the Trump administration had launched a coordinated effort to target students and scholars who had criticized Israel or showed sympathy for Palestinians.
“Not since the McCarthy era have immigrants been the target of such intense repression for lawful political speech,” Ramya Krishnan, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute, told the court. “The policy creates a cloud of fear over university communities, and it is at war with the First Amendment.”
Lawyers for the Trump administration put up witnesses who testified there was no ideological deportation policy as the plaintiffs contended.
“There is no policy to revoke visas on the basis of protected speech,” Victoria Santora told the court. “The evidence presented at this trial will show that plaintiffs are challenging nothing more than government enforcement of immigration laws.”
John Armstrong, the senior bureau official in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, testified that visa revocations were based on longstanding immigration law. Armstrong acknowledged he played a role in the visa revocation of several high-profile activists, including Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil, and was shown memos endorsing their removal.
Armstrong also insisted that visa revocations were not based on protected speech and rejected accusations that there was a policy of targeting someone for their ideology.
One witness testified that the campaign targeted more than 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters. Out of the 5,000 names reviewed, investigators wrote reports on about 200 who had potentially violated US law, Peter Hatch of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations Unit testified. Until this year, Hatch said, he could not recall a student protester being referred for a visa revocation.
Among the report subjects was Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Khalil, who was released last month after 104 days in federal immigration detention. Khalil has become a symbol of Trump’s clampdown on the protests.
Another was the Tufts University student Ozturk, who was released in May from six weeks in detention after being arrested on a suburban Boston street. She said she was illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing her school’s response to the war in Gaza.

PARIS: The French Navy said on Tuesday that authorities were investigating a possible infraction by the oil tanker Boracay, a vessel suspected of belonging to the so-called “shadow fleet” involved in the Russian oil trade.
The vessel is listed under British and European Union sanctions against Russia. It was detained by Estonian authorities earlier this year for sailing without a valid country flag. Shadow fleet tankers typically have opaque ownership and insurance and are often more than 20 years old.
The crude oil tanker left the Russian port of Primorsk on September 20, according to MarineTraffic data. It sailed through the Baltic Sea and over the top of Denmark before entering the North Sea and transiting west through the Channel.
Ship tracking data shows that the 2007-built tanker was being shadowed by a French warship after it rounded France’s northwestern tip, before altering course and heading east toward the French coast. It is currently at anchor near Saint Nazaire.

CREW FAIL TO PROVE VESSEL’S NATIONALITY
The French Navy said an investigation was underway. The Brest prosecutor told Reuters a probe had been opened after the crew failed to provide proof of the vessel’s nationality and failed to comply with orders.
Britain and the EU imposed separate sanctions on the crude oil tanker in October 2024 and February 2025.
The EU said the vessel was linked to the transport of Russian crude oil and petroleum products “while practicing irregular and high-risk shipping practices.”
Britain said the vessel was “involved in activity whose object or effect is to destabilize Ukraine … or to obtain a benefit from or support the government of Russia” in the transport of oil or oil products that originated in Russia to a third country.
The vessel, which changed its name to Boracay — or on some shipping databases Pushpa — in December 2024, was previously named Kiwala. Ships keep the same IMO identification number throughout their lives, but they may change names.