Free Speech

Trump Can't Deport Legal Immigrants for Protected Speech, Judge Rules

The court struck down the government’s use of immigration law to threaten lawful noncitizens with deportation for protected speech.

Reem Ibrahim | 9.3.2026 10:55 AM

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Since President Donald Trump's return to the White House, the federal government has repeatedly used immigration law to stifle speech. Legal noncitizens have been threatened with deportation for criticizing Israel and American foreign policy, but a federal judge says this is unconstitutional.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Noël Wise of the Northern District of California held that Secretary of State Marco Rubio's use of two provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952 to target legal noncitizens violates the First and Fifth Amendments.

Under the first provision of the law invoked by Rubio, the secretary of state may begin deportation proceedings against a noncitizen for protected speech if the secretary "personally determines" that the speech "compromises a compelling foreign policy interest." The second provision allows the secretary to "at any time, in his discretion, revoke such visa or other documentation." It was under these two provisions that the........

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