Attorneys for a 21-year-old Columbia University student fighting deportation asked a federal judge late Thursday to order the Trump administration to produce a letter from Sec. of State Marco Rubio that targets two activists for removal under a rarely-invoked federal act.
The attorneys want to uncover if the name of the student — Yunseo Chung, a green card holder whose family moved to the United States from South Korea when she was seven — is the one that’s redacted from Rubio’s two-page memo, which first publicly surfaced Thursday.
The other student named in the letter is Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a Columbia graduate who served as a mediator between pro-Palestinian groups and the university during a series of protests last year.
Khalil, also a green card holder, is fighting his deportation in a Louisiana immigration court and in a federal court in New Jersey.
The Rubio memo, first reported by the Associated Press, was made public ahead of his immigration hearing on Friday.
It does not accuse Khalil of any criminal conduct or repeat allegations in earlier court filings that he misrepresented himself in his green card application. Instead, it flatly asserts that the Secretary of State can deport any noncitizen whose presence in the U.S. he judges would compromise the nation’s foreign policy interests, even on the basis of “expected beliefs” that are “otherwise lawful.”
If Chung’s name does appear in the undated missive from Rubio, as her attorneys suspect, it would mean her transformation from an under-the-radar Columbia University junior to a top government target occurred in the span of just two days in March.
She was arrested at a protest at Barnard College on the afternoon of March 5, and her name was shared with Rubio on March 7 by the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Securities Investigations, according to the Rubio memo.
Attorneys for Chung, who in their motion to the federal court judge in Manhattan also sought five other types of documents from the government, didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Rubio letter provides the federal government’s most detailed explanation yet for its basis for seeking the deportations of Khalil and presumably Chung, both legal permanent residents.
It cites a rarely-invoked provision under the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows a Secretary of State to personally determine that a noncitizen is deportable.
“I have determined that the activities and presence of these aliens in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest,” Rubio wrote.
“The public actions and continued presence of [redacted] and Khalil in the United States undermine U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”
The letter says Rubio’s determination was based on information provided by DHS, ICE and HSI, regarding the two students’ participation in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities.”
While it doesn’t include any alleged illegal activity by Khalil, it says the other student’s determination is based on “citations for unlawful activity during these protests.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Dept. of State said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation or on the authenticity of documents that were “allegedly leaked.”
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