On March 24th, we learned of another student demonstrator targeted by the Trump regime for anti-genocide protest, when a junior at Columbia University, Yunseo Chung, sued numerous administration officials seeking a temporary restraining order "barring the government from detaining her based on her protected speech and in the absence of independent, legitimate grounds." Cheung, a legal permanent resident who has been living in the US since she was 7 years old, was targeted for helping set up a protest encampment on campus, handing out some fliers, and her mere participation in a sit-in at Bernard College to protest the expulsion of students who participated in the anti-genocide campus protests last year.
1) https://www.commondreams.org/news/yunseo-chung
Another Columbia Protester Targeted for Deportation Sues Trump
"The 21-year-old, who moved from South Korea to the United States with her family at age 7, participated in some student protests on Columbia's campus "related to Israel's military campaign in Gaza and the devastating toll it has taken on Palestinian civilians," states the complaint. "Chung has not made public statements to the press or otherwise assumed a high-profile role in these protests. She was, rather, one of a large group of college students raising, expressing, and discussing shared concerns."
Earlier this month, she was arrested by the New York Police Department at a student sit-in "to protest what she believed to be the excessive punishments meted out by the Columbia administration to student protesters facing campus disciplinary proceedings," the document details. "Mere days later... the federal government began a series of unlawful efforts to arrest, detain, and remove Ms. Chung from the country because of her protected speech."
The suit asserts that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) "shocking actions against Ms. Chung form part of a larger pattern of attempted U.S. government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech," specifically, "university students who speak out in solidarity with Palestinians and who are critical of the Israeli government's ongoing military campaign in Gaza or the pro-Israeli policies of the U.S. government and other U.S. institutions."
Yeung, who went into hiding to avoid ICE detention as part of a regime act of blatantly unconstitutional ideological policing, was ultimately able to secure a restraining order to prevent her arrest while she continues to fight deportation attempts despite her status as a legal permanent resident.
2) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/25/columbia-gaza-protester-yunseo-chung-lawsuit
Student who sued Trump takes powerful stand against ‘constant dread’ of deportation threats
"On 5 March, Chung – a 21-year-old student at Columbia University – attended a sit-in to protest the expulsion of several students involved in pro-Palestinian activism at the famed New York university. Four days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents showed up at her parents’ home.
When they couldn’t find her there, Ice sought help from federal prosecutors and searched her dormitory – using a warrant that cited a criminal law against “harboring noncitizens”. They revoked her green card and accused her of posing a threat to US foreign policy interests.
On Monday, Chung sued Donald Trump and other high-ranking administrations to stop their targeting of her and other students. And on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt its efforts to arrest and deport Chung, saying “nothing in the record” indicated that Chung posed a danger to the community."
