'She deleted a social media account': Judge rules against Marco Rubio over deportations

WASHINGTON, DC: A federal judge ruled against Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing a lawful noncitizen who deleted a social media account to guard against retaliation.

The case challenged the Trump administration’s use of immigration law to pursue deportation proceedings against noncitizen students over political expression.

Judge Noël Wise of the Northern District of California issued the ruling Friday, siding with the Stanford Daily in its lawsuit against Rubio.

Judge Wise points to a chilling effect

The unnamed woman, a lawful noncitizen who previously held a student visa at a school other than Stanford, said in court documents that she refrained from publishing or voicing her views on Palestine and Israel, Politico reported on Saturday, August 29.

She also “has deleted a social media account to guard against retaliation for past expression,” according to the court documents.

Wise wrote that the alleged chilling effect was central to the constitutional dispute, arguing that the government cannot take away speech rights because it dislikes what someone says.

“In the United States, freedom of speech belongs to the people,” Wise wrote. “It is not the government’s to take.”

The Stanford Daily sued Rubio over his use of the Immigration and Nationality Act to deport noncitizen students, arguing that the policy had caused foreign students to refrain from writing opinion pieces critical of the administration.

Another plaintiff in the case was the unnamed lawful noncitizen, whose actions were cited in the court documents as an example of the pressure surrounding political expression.

The ruling follows student deportation cases

The decision comes after the administration’s campaign last year to revoke visas and seek deportations of foreign students involved in the pro-Palestinian movement, the report stated. 

Those subjected to deportation proceedings included Columbia University activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, Tufts University doctoral graduate Rümeysa Öztürk, and Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri, it said.

Khalil, a green card holder, was detained for more than three months after leading pro-Palestinian protests on his campus. 

Mahdawi, also a lawful permanent resident, was arrested after appearing for a citizenship interview.

Öztürk was detained by masked agents in Boston after the State Department revoked her student visa because of an op-ed she co-authored criticizing her school’s response to the war in Gaza.

The cases became part of a broader legal and political fight over the administration’s efforts to crack down on campus activism it viewed as not aligned with its foreign policy.

The administration argued that the students’ presence could harm US foreign policy, while the students and their lawyers said they were being punished for constitutionally protected free speech.

Attorney and judge underscore the ruling's stakes

The ruling also drew a statement from Conor Fitzpatrick, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which sued Rubio on behalf of the Stanford Daily.

“In America, free speech doesn’t just belong to the people who say things the government agrees with,” Fitzpatrick said.

He added: “Today’s ruling proves that free speech isn’t a privilege, but the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child.”

The detentions had also prompted protests and pushback from Democratic lawmakers, with demonstrators rallying in New York and Massachusetts and members of Congress pressing the administration over its actions toward the students.

Wise also wrote: “Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person’s speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it,” as per the outlet.