A group of academic associations filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the administration of US President Donald Trump of pursuing an illegal “ideological-deportation policy” targeting non-citizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestine protests.

The move comes amid broad efforts by the Trump administration to reshape US policy related to education, immigration, law enforcement, and other areas where officials have argued First Amendment speech protections intersect with national security concerns.

Key to Tuesday’s lawsuit was the March 8, 2025 arrest of Khalil Mahmoud, a Palestinian graduate student and legal US resident who played a prominent role in last year’s pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. Despite his lawful immigration status, Khalil was detained without criminal charges and transferred 1,000 miles away from his Manhattan home to Louisiana, separating him from his pregnant wife and legal counsel. The case has raised significant constitutional concerns, with attorneys arguing the government is improperly using immigration law to target protected political speech. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Khalil’s deportation, as lawmakers and civil liberties groups contend the arrest represents an alarming precedent for free speech rights on college campuses and the rule of law in immigration enforcement.

Following the arrest, the White House said detentions of pro-Palestine activists would continue, with Trump himself adding it was “the first arrest of many to come.”

Tuesday’s lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts by five US academic associations against the US Government and various individual officials, began by addressing this policy:

Implementing executive orders issued by President Trump in January, the defendant agencies have announced that they intend to carry out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestinian protests and other related expression and association (the “ideological-deportation policy”). The defendant agencies arrested [Khalil] … pursuant to this policy earlier this month; they revoked the visas of at least four others, one of whom fled to Canada in fear of arrest; they supplied universities with the names of other students they intend to target under the policy; and they launched new social media surveillance programs aimed at identifying still others.

The plaintiffs claim the policy violates the First Amendment by silencing political viewpoints and creating “a climate of repression and fear” on university campuses. The policy has already had a chilling effect, according to the complaint, which claims that out of fear of deportation, non-citizen students and faculty have stopped attending protests, resigned from advocacy groups, and self-censored their academic work and social media.

The associations are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to halt the implementation of what they describe as an unconstitutional policy.