Press Release
Published on March 25, 2025
New York, NY – Today in federal court in Manhattan, Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia University student who is a legal permanent resident of the United States, sued President Trump and other administration officials for attempting to arrest and deport her simply because she attended protests against the war in Gaza.
The government claims that Chung, who came to the United States from South Korea with her family when she was seven, has created serious adverse foreign policy consequences by attending demonstrations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents assisted by federal prosecutors have tried several times to arrest her. They have also invoked the harboring statute, a criminal law aimed at those who give shelter to noncitizens present in the country illegally, to search residences on the Columbia campus.
“The government’s plans to arrest and deport Yunseo Chung violate the First Amendment,” said Joshua Colangelo-Bryan of Human Rights First, one of Chung’s lawyers. “In fact, when President Trump’s sister was a federal judge, she ruled that the provision the government seeks to invoke is unconstitutional. And how weak does the U.S. look when it makes the preposterous claim that the presence of a former high school valedictorian at protests will harm U.S. foreign policy?”
Human Rights First and co-counsel, including CLEAR, a legal clinic at the City University of New York, are representing Chung in her efforts to stop the government’s attack on the rights of noncitizens who express political views disfavored by the administration.
