Judge strikes down Trump visa policy targeting foreign pro-Palestinian university students

A federal judge in California, Noel Wise, has ruled that the Trump administration's policy of canceling visas and initiating deportation proceedings against noncitizen college students for pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel is unconstitutional. The ruling, issued on Friday, found that the administration's use of federal immigration law provisions to target non-citizens for expressing disfavored views violated the US Constitution's First and Fifth Amendments. Judge Wise stated that "free speech isn't a privilege, but the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child." This decision follows a lawsuit filed by The Stanford Daily, which alleged that the policy led to self-censorship among its student visa-holding writers. The ruling is consistent with a similar decision last year by a Boston-based judge regarding the same administration policy.