Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration’s Speech-Based Deportation Efforts Unconstitutional

A federal judge ruled on August 28, 2026, that the Trump administration’s use of the Immigration and Nationality Act to deport noncitizens over political speech violates the First and Fifth Amendments, siding with the Stanford Daily in its lawsuit against Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Northern District of California Judge Noël Wise, a Biden appointee, found that Rubio’s actions had chilled speech among foreign students, including an unnamed noncitizen plaintiff who said she stopped voicing her views on Palestine and Israel and deleted a social media account out of fear of retaliation, writing that “freedom of speech belongs to the people. It is not the government’s to take.” A State Department spokesperson pushed back, calling visas “a privilege, not a right” and that the U.S. has no obligation to admit people who “subvert our laws.” Politico reports that the ruling follows a wave of high-profile deportation efforts targeting pro-Palestinian student activists last year, including Columbia’s Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, Tufts doctoral graduate Rümeysa Öztürk, and Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri—cases that drew protests, congressional pressure, and accusations that the administration was punishing constitutionally protected speech under the guise of foreign policy concerns.