As the gravity of the Trumpenreich's attempted invasion of LA, the Swine Emperor's birthday boy military parade, and the regime's seemingly vociferous support for Israel's attack on Iran dominate the American discourse, I'd like to take a look at a story about the regime's attempts to deport anti-genocide activists and scholars, that got lost in the shuffle of larger spectacles in our news cycle. While this June 7th Intercept article by Jonah Valdez is centered around government attorney actions in one lawsuit, I think the behavior on display here actually says quite a lot about the regime's intention to discourage, criminalize, and punish anti-genocide speech or ideological opposition to Trump's pro-Israel policies going forward.

https://theintercept.com/2025/06/07/ice-deport-free-speech-aaup-rubio/

ICE Won’t Rule Out Retaliating Against Immigrants Who Testify in Free Speech Case

"As attorneys for the scholars prepared to file a motion to protect their witnesses — many of whom are in the country under green cards or visas — from being detained or deported for testifying during trial, government attorneys refused to agree to such safeguards, according to recent legal filings in the case.

In their refusal, government attorneys said that their clients, which include the Department of Homeland Security as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “did not want to be bound by an agreement preventing them from taking action against individuals whose identities they did not know yet,” the filings said.

When the scholars’ attorneys clarified that the motion would only protect witnesses from being targeted for participating in the case, attorneys for DHS and ICE doubled down in their opposition to the protection and challenged them to instead have the judge decide whether to grant the order."

The backdrop here is that the American Association of University Professors filed a lawsuit against the government for its clearly-illegal targeting of anti-genocide student protestors and scholars, shortly after the regime kidnapped and attempted to deport Mahmoud Khalil (among others), a legal permanent resident, for exercising his constitutionally-protected free speech rights during anti-genocide protests at Columbia University. Naturally, because some of the people who would testify in a case like that are going to be pro-Palestine students and scholars who're the intended targets of Trump's fascist ideological policing, lawyers sought assurances that their clients wouldn't be targeted by ICE or the State Department, either for, or during their testimony. This should be a mere formality in a case centered around civil rights and the limits of state enforcement power like this, after all.

Of course, and perhaps to the surprise of no one, DHS and ICE lawyers refused to provide those assurances. What's more, they declined a second time even after the plaintiff's attorneys made it clear the immunity they were seeking was related entirely to the act of testifying against the government in a legal setting. This then ultimately lead to the motion this story is primarily about.

“Noncitizen witnesses contacted by counsel have expressed concern that, if they testify at trial or are otherwise identified in connection with this case, Defendants will retaliate against them by arresting, detaining, or deporting them, denying them reentry into the United States, revoking their visas, adjusting their legal permanent resident status, or denying their pending or future naturalization applications,” the motion read.

Look, I don't want to suggest that this isn't bog standard Trumpenreich petty vindictiveness and racism, because the government's behavior here certainly is those things. But this lawsuit challenges not only the government's kidnapping and attempted deportation of foreign scholars and student protestors who speak out against a US-backed genocide being conducted by Israel in Gaza, but also the rapidly-expanding immigrant surveillance panopticon the regime is still constructing; even as cases against all this fascist ideological policing continue to successfully make their way through the courts. The regime has a lot of its militarized police state plans hinging on this case, and cases like it, so they're comfortable with openly intimidating witnesses with the threat of federal reprisal; and they don't seem to care if anyone, including judges, knows it.

Analysis isn't prophecy, but if I were a gambling woman I'd bet that the regime has plans to expand its protestor kidnapping program no matter what the outcome of the case against Khalil (and others) turns out to be.

#Fascism #ICE #DHS #Trump #Courts #CivilRights #StudentProtestors #Imperialism #Colonialism #Genocide #Israel #Gaza #Palestinians #USConstitution #MahmoudKhalil

Given the stunning level of illegality and disregard for civil rights the Trump regime has deployed in its fascist war on student protestors who oppose a US-backed genocide in Gaza, would it surprise you at all to learn that the Department of Homeland Security probably lied their asses off to get the warrant they used to search two student dorm rooms for activists they'd targeted for illegal deportations?

https://theintercept.com/2025/03/28/ice-warrants-columbia-students-gaza-protests/

Ice Got Warrants Under “False Pretenses,” Claims Columbia Student Targeted Over Gaza Protests

"Earlier this month, while hunting for Columbia University students to deport over their ties to Gaza protests, the Trump administration convinced a federal judge to sign off on search warrants for two students’ dorm rooms — then raided the residences with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

As details about the warrants have emerged, however, so have allegations that federal agents misled the court and secured the warrants under “false pretenses,” as one of the students whose room was searched, Yunseo Chung, claimed in a lawsuit challenging her deportation.

The warrants were predicated on probable cause that Columbia was “harboring” students who were in the country illegally, court filings indicate. Chung, however, is a lawful permanent resident, notwithstanding the Trump administration’s efforts to deport her based on her arrest and citation at a Gaza sit-in. She has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old.

“The idea that they went before a federal magistrate judge and said, ‘We have to search Ms. Chung’s residence for evidence of Columbia harboring her’ — that shows they’re willing to lie to a judge,” said Nathan Yaffe, an immigration attorney."

This story isn't particularly complicated; DHS told a judge they needed search warrants because Colombia was "harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus" specifically to find two students it knew had legal status to be in the country. Of course Trump's warpig lapdog Marco Rubio is arguing that the student(s) were "illegal" because he unilaterally revoked their student visas/green cards, but actually he can't legally do that and since the government hasn't brought the matter before an immigration judge, the targets of the warrant were straight up ineligible for the crime the warrant was seeking to find evidence for or suspects for an arrest.

#Fascism #ICE #DHS #Trump #Gaza #Migrants #Genocide #StudentProtestors #Kidnapping #CivilRights #Israel #FreeSpeech #ColumbiaUniveristy #YunseoChung #StephenMiller #IdeologicalPolicing

⬆️ @earthworm

@victorshi

This is my hope and my sincere request (see above) to young #Biden delegates, #GenZ activists, #StudentProtestors, and the #DemocraticParty.

#Students should organize massive rallies and #StudentProtests to use all their might to fight the fire in their OWN homes before donning fancy T-shirts to #boycott and #divest in foreign holdings.

Don’t let #Putin stooge #JillStein spoil #Election2024 like she did in 2016.

Keep #BDS #BDSMovement #BDSHorseshoe in check.

⬆️

This story barely makes the news even though #Myanmar is a nation of 56 million people.

Does it fail to make news because there are no religious or ethnic groups #worthTargeting in the story?

Where are the liberal #StudentProtestors demanding that military #junta return power to #SuuKyi?