BOSTON (WHDH) - Thirteen New England college newspapers are backing Stanford University’s student newspaper in a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration policy they say infringes on international students’ free speech rights.
The colleges signed an amici brief, a legal filing from outside parties offering support in the case. It challenges Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that his office has the authority to deport international students or revoke their visas for statements the Trump administration says compromise American foreign policy interests.
The policy was used to revoke the visa of Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, leading to her detainment after she wrote an op-ed about the Israel-Hamas war for The Tufts Daily. Öztürk was held for six weeks at an ICE facility in Louisiana before being released. Her case is still pending.
In total, 55 college newspapers signed onto the briefing filed in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, supporting The Stanford Daily’s lawsuit against Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. The lawsuit argues that student journalists with visas are declining to cover the Israel-Gaza war out of fear their reporting could jeopardize their immigration status.
“They’re afraid if what they write or what they say ends up on the administration’s radar, they’re going to be put on the next plane back to their home country,” said Conor Fitzpatrick, one of the attorneys representing The Stanford Daily.
The New England student newspapers that joined the legal filing include The Tufts Daily, The Harvard Crimson, Northeastern’s The Huntington News, and UMass Boston’s The Mass Media. They argue the Trump administration policy violates international students’ free speech rights, and threatens free press on campus.
“Current policies that drive international students away or compel them to self-censor have stripped campus media of the diverse voices necessary to provide the public with a full and accurate understanding of their communities,” the brief states.
Editors say the self-censorship isn’t unique to Stanford.
“Like everybody else in the amicus brief, we’ve had students calling our phone, asking us to remove their names from articles that they’ve written,” said Elijah Horwath, editor-in-chief of The Mass Media. “International students have literally called us in tears worried about their visa.”
Staff at Northeastern University’s student newspaper say they’re getting the same calls, and have struggled to persuade international students to speak on the record.
“These concerns are not unfounded, as exemplified by the detention of Rümeysa Öztürk at Tufts,” said Emily Spatz, editor-in-chief of The Huntington News. “By signing this amicus brief, we stand with student publications across the country that have experienced similar chilling effects on campus free speech.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is representing The Stanford Daily and two international students. The civil liberties group says the students fear deportation because of their pro-Palestinian activism.
FIRE says one of the students is listed on the Canary Mission website, which publishes the personal information of students and professors it accuses of promoting antisemitic views. A senior Department of Homeland Security official testified in a Boston federal trial that members of the Trump administration used the site to target pro-Palestinian advocates like Öztürk.
In that same Boston case, a federal juge ruled that the Trump administration policy unlawfully targeted noncitizens for deportation based on their pro-Palestinian activism. That ruling only applied to the individual plaintiffs in the case. FIRE’s lawsuit seeks a broader ruling declaring the underlying statutes unconstitutional.
“We’re very heartened by the prior rulings that we’ve seen so far this year,” Fitzpatrick said. “We hope to build on them.”
Oral arguments in the case are set for November 19.
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