A Columbia University junior and a Cornell University graduate student are currently evading immigration agents as their legal teams work to prevent the Trump administration from deporting them. These actions are claimed to be in retaliation for their vocal support of pro-Palestinian activism. Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old junior at Columbia who originally hails from South Korea, holds a green card and has resided in the United States for 14 years. She has filed a request in a New York court seeking an order to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from arresting her while she contests the State Department's assertion that her presence in the country undermines U.S. foreign policy.
Momodou Taal, a graduate student at Cornell with a student visa and dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and Gambia, is also in a precarious situation. He filed a lawsuit last week aimed at blocking President Trump’s broad executive orders targeting antisemitism. According to court documents from the Department of Justice, the State Department revoked Taal’s student visa, citing his involvement in "disruptive protests" that allegedly violated university policies and created a hostile environment for Jewish students. Despite efforts by homeland security officials to locate him since March 14, Taal remains elusive.
Chung and Taal are seeking judicial intervention to prevent the Trump administration from enforcing new executive orders, which they argue are veiled attempts to penalize pro-Palestinian activists involved in last year’s wave of campus protests. Their cases have not captured as much public attention as that of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure in Columbia's protests, who was arrested and transported to Louisiana earlier this month. Like Chung, Khalil is also contesting deportation following a similar decision from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Another individual facing similar challenges is Badar Khan Suri, a researcher at Georgetown University, who was detained by Homeland Security officials last week outside his Arlington, Virginia, residence and subsequently taken to Louisiana. The lawsuits initiated by Chung and Taal reflect a growing conflict between the Trump administration and immigrants—who are lawfully present in the U.S. and have not been charged with any crimes—yet are still being targeted for removal.
The State Department has accused Khalil and Suri of "spreading propaganda" for Hamas, which the U.S. government classifies as a terrorist organization but has governed Gaza for nearly two decades. In Taal’s case, the Trump administration has directly linked the cancellation of his visa to an executive order aimed at combating antisemitism issued by the President in January. In a declaration filed with the federal court in Manhattan, ICE official Roy Stanley stated, “ICE is steadfast in its commitment to enforcing the Executive Order prohibiting anti-Semitism and safeguarding national security.” He emphasized that ICE conducts targeted analyses to validate claims of individuals engaging in antisemitic activities.
Administration representatives have dismissed Taal’s assertion that removal proceedings against him are in part retaliatory for his lawsuit, indicating that the proceedings began a day prior to his legal action. Many activists challenging the administration in court suspect that scrutiny increased following the publication of their information by pro-Israel websites. While Stanley’s declaration does not confirm this suspicion, it does note that an ICE counterterrorism intelligence unit "proactively reviews open-source information" to identify individuals who may be subject to the executive order, including publicly available unclassified information.
