The Trump administration’s efforts to deport foreign students who espoused pro-Palestinian views under a little-used foreign policy provision have no obvious legal parallel.
Demonstrators rally outside of Columbia University at West 116th St. and Broadway in Manhattan to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and former Columbia student in March.
The head of the Bureau of Consular Affairs said his office regularly weighed criticism of Israel when determining whether to deny or revoke student visas.
A senior Homeland Security official testified in court on Wednesday that his department had relied in part on an anonymously compiled list to identify foreign academics for investigation.
Peter Hatch, the assistant director of the Homeland Security Investigations department within ICE, testified that a team he oversaw had been directed to pore over the thousands of individuals profiled by the Canary Mission, an anonymous group that has been accused of doxxing individuals engaged in anti-Israeli activism.
The ruling cited a Supreme Court decision in May that allowed President Trump to sideline Democratic appointees from several other nonpartisan agencies.