“They feel targeted”: the Republicans are “chilling” the pro-Palestine discourse on the Columbia campus, the lawyers say
Congress investigations and the threats of the White House are the “chilling” Palestinian defense Columbia UniversityThe campus, according to lawyers for activists, who ask a federal judge to block their disciplinary records to obtain to obtain In the hands of republican legislators.
Lawyers for several students – including Mahmoud Khalil, a legitimate permanent resident threatened by its removal From the country to support Campus protests – a federal judge in New York City invited on Tuesday to block the release of those registers, fearing that they would be used to intimidate, harass and supervise the protesters in an attempt to suppress the field of the campus in support of the support of the support Palestine and against IsraelThe ongoing campaign in Gaza.
Student activists are “demonized” for the protected speech, according to the lawyer Amy Greer, who also represents Khalil in his case against his detention.
“They feel targeted,” Arun Subramanian told the district judge. “They are frightened when they see their targeted or defamed identities.”
Last month, the Committee of the Chamber led by the Republicans for education and the workforce asked Columbia to produce disciplinary registers of the students surrounding the events of the campus that followed Hamas Attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023 and suggested that the school would lose federal funding if it was not compliant.
Republicans of the Chamber e Donald Trump‘S administration they are confusing the criticism of Israel with anti -Semitism And using a “hammer” to “substantially repress all the critical speech towards Israel” while smearing the activists of the student-muscles of which they are Jews themselves-as “pro-haamas” and “anti-American”, said Greer Tuesday.
The hearing arrived as a separated federal judge in Manhattan The Trump administration has been blocked from the deportation of Yunseo Chung, Another student from Columbia and legitimate permanent resident who was the victim of the “shocking” overcoming of the government, defaming his political opinions and the constitutionally protected right to protest, according to his lawyers
The lawyer Ramzi Kassem, who represents Chung and Khalil, told journalists outside the court that a temporary restrictive order that blocks the government to retain and deport Chung is “right and right”.
“The court did the reasonable thing,” he said. “Until further orders of the Court, (Immigration and customs application) will not be able to take further measures to retain it and we will continue to fight hard as we must claim his constitutional rights in court. “
University professors and academic organizations from all over the country He filed a cause on Tuesday in Massachusettsclaiming that the Trump administration is violating the First amendment Through a “climate of fear and repression” on university campuses.
“For fear that they may be arrested and deported by expression and legitimate association, some students and non -citizens have stopped attending public protests or resigning from groups of the campus that engage in political defense”, according to the cause.
“Others refused the opportunities to publish comments and scholarships, have stopped contributing to class discussions or to eliminate the works passed from databases and online websites,” wrote the lawyers. “Many now hesitate to face political issues on social media, or even in private texts. The (politics), in other words, is realizing its purpose: it is terrorizing the students and the faculty for their exercise of First amendment Rights in the past, intimidating them from the exercise of those rights now and silence the political points of view that the government touches “.
Greer echoed to these topics in the Subramanian classroom.
The actions of Columbia, “forced” by republican officials, had a “deep effect” on students’ activists, he said.
Shortly after the cause of the students was presented at the beginning of this month, Columbia announced that the students involved in the occupation of a campus building last autumn now face “multi -year suspensions, revocation of temporary degree and expulsions”.
Columbia also seemed to give in to the requests of the Trump Administration of large changes to the university under the threat of Losing $ 400 million in federal funds For his “continues inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”.
The administration cannot “take Columbia hostage” for $ 400 million, Greer said.
The lawyers for Columbia claimed that “many” of the actions announced in a declaration following the threats of Trump “were the product of months and months of work”.
To the question from the judge if Columbia would have ever taken such actions without an implicit threat of losing federal funding, Miller defined the scenario a “hypothetical” one.
“I don’t think it’s a hypothetical,” replied the judge Subramanian.
Miller stopped and consulted with another lawyer.
“The best way to put it is that all the actions announced were the actions in the revision and development phase,” he said.
The letter “crystallized” the efforts of Columbia and the times to announce them, according to Miller.
The Committee’s lawyers denied that his letter in February at Columbia presented any threat. The University has already provided the committee a “considerable amount” of information that is being reviewed, but it is not clear what the committee plans to do with it.
All this information was anonymous, according to the lawyers of Columbia and the Committee.
But the students of Columbia are “some of the most supervised people in the country right now,” said Greer.
Although the information is anonymous, putting students at certain moments and places, “someone will recognize it”, said Greer, noting the pressure of pro-Israeli groups such as Batar and Canary Mission who have launched social media campaigns aim for activists.
Department of Justice The lawyer Harry Graver claimed that the actions at the center of the letters at the University “have nothing to do with the protected speech” and are instead “illegal conduct”.
“These are harassment and anti -Semitic violence,” he said.
