Trump targets even ‘low-profile’ players in Columbia protests, lawyers say

Lawyers for a Columbia student targeted for arrest and deportation by the Trump administration say her case shows the government isn’t just targeting leaders but also minor players in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.

Yunseo Chung, 21, a permanent resident and junior at Columbia who moved to the United States from South Korea at age 7, is suing the Trump administration to stop the detention and deportation of her and other pro-Palestinian protesters.

Her lawsuit, filed in federal court on Monday, follows the high-profile arrest of Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident currently detained in Louisiana who has become a public face of the university’s pro-Palestinian protest movement.

Unlike Khalil — who has led pro-Palestinian protests on campus, addressed reporters and negotiated with university leaders — Chung has been a bit player in the protests, her attorneys said in the court filings. Nonetheless, she has been targeted for removal by the Trump administration.

“You don’t have to be a prominent activist. … Their goal is to make it so that everyone is afraid to speak out or express any views that they don't like,” Nathan Yaffe, one of Chung’s attorneys, said Tuesday. “ And the way to do that is to show that even low-profile, innocuous and relatively contained expressions of your beliefs can make you a target.”

A federal judge in a hearing Tuesday blocked the government from detaining Chung while her lawsuit challenging her removal proceeds.

A While House spokesperson said the administration made no "apologies for its efforts" to protect Jewish Americans from antisemitism. There was no immediate comment from U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Chung is the latest of several pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia and other universities who have been targeted by ICE for deportation.

Her lawsuit comes as the Trump administration is pressuring universities to provide the names and nationalities of students who may have harassed Jewish students or faculty, according to a Washington Post report.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration revoked $400 million in federal funding from Columbia University over claims that the university hasn’t done enough to protect its Jewish students from harassment.

Columbia leaders subsequently announced that the school had agreed to many of the administration’s demands in a bid to restore the funding.

In Chung’s case, as with Khalil, the Trump administration has relied upon an obscure law that allows for the deportation of individuals whose presence in the United States could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” according to Chung’s lawsuit.

In an email to Gothamist, a senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Chung has “engaged in concerning conduct,” acknowledged she is being sought for removal proceedings, and cited her arrest by the NYPD during a “pro-Hamas” protest at Barnard College.

According to her lawsuit, Chung mainly participated in the protests as an attendee. In May 2024, she faced disciplinary proceedings for allegedly attaching posters to Columbia buildings, but she was later cleared of any violations, according to her suit.

Chung was among a group of students arrested on March 5 in connection with a protest at Barnard College. She was issued a desk appearance ticket for "obstruction of governmental administration," a common citation issued by police at protests, according to the complaint.

Department of Homeland Security agents visited Chung’s parents’ home four days later in the first of a series of attempts to locate and detain her, the complaint states.

Chung hasn’t yet been detained by ICE. Chung’s lawyers said she has remained in the United States but wouldn’t comment on her location.

Chung’s lawsuit details federal officials' significant and ultimately unsuccessful efforts to find her, including visiting multiple residences, searching her dorm room and involving federal prosecutors.

The involvement of federal prosecutors is notable and unusual in immigration cases, Chung’s lawyers said.

Federal agents seeking Chung searched two dorm rooms on March 13 using warrants that cited a law commonly known as the harboring statute, which allows for criminal penalties for those who shelter noncitizens living in the United States illegally.

The searches were part of federal prosecutors' larger investigation into Columbia University, according to the lawsuit. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has said Columbia University is under investigation for “harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus.”

Attorneys for Chung have argued that the warrants were obtained on "false pretenses," as a legal pathway for ICE to access Chung and another student they were searching for. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On March 9, the same day that ICE visited Chung’s parents’ house, Chung received a text from someone identifying themselves as “Audrey from the police,” according to the lawsuit. When Chung’s attorney called the number, the woman said she was an ICE agent, that the State Department could revoke Chung's permanent residency status, and that there was an administrative warrant out for Chung’s arrest, the lawsuit states.

Later that evening, Chung received an email from Columbia Public Safety informing her that federal prosecutors had been in contact with the school, and that ICE agents were seeking to arrest her, according to the lawsuit.

The next day, March 10, Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone told Chung’s attorney Naz Ahmad that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had revoked Chung's visa, the lawsuit states. When Ahmad told him that Chung had a green card, Carbone said Rubio had revoked that, too, according to the lawsuit.

The exchange between Ahmad and Carbone mirrored another between Khalil’s attorneys and immigration officials, who were initially aware that he was a permanent resident.

Chung is one of several pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia and other universities targeted for immigration enforcement by the Trump administration.

ICE officers have arrested Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, and sought to arrest several others, including Columbia graduate student Ranjani Srinivasan.

Srinivasan’s visa was revoked after she was arrested in April 2024 in connection with a protest at Columbia. But her case was quickly dismissed, and she told the New York Times that she was caught between police barricades and protesters when returning to her apartment after a picnic with friends. Srinivasan has since fled to Canada.

Ramzi Kassem, another of Chung’s attorneys, warned that the Trump administration’s actions toward Chung and Khalil are “a template that will be applied to any number of issue sets that this administration happens to disagree with.”

“ It’s not just limited or focused exclusively on people who stand up for the human rights of Palestinians the way Yunseo did, and others have,” said Kassem, professor law at CUNY Law School and co-director of CUNY’s CLEAR (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) project. “They will use that to suppress any speech they dislike, whether it's for reproductive rights, LGBTQ, rights, racial justice. The list goes on.  That's why we have to draw a line here.”

This article was updated with additional information.