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."

On March 17th, DHS agents wearing face masks abducted Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral scholar, after informing him that his visa had been revoked by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

1) https://truthout.org/articles/dhs-abducts-georgetown-postdoctoral-researcher-over-pro-palestine-views/

DHS Abducts Georgetown Postdoctoral Researcher Over Pro-Palestine Views

"Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen and research fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (which is part of the school’s Foreign Service program), was detained on Monday night outside of his home in Arlington, Virginia. The immigration officials, who wore face coverings, identified themselves as being Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents and told Suri that his J-1 visa was being revoked at the behest of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin on the social media site X."

It should be noted that the Trump regime has since tried to explain away Suri's detention by pointing out that his father-in-law is a former advisor to Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. That reasoning doesn't compute however because Yousef (the father-in-law) left the Gaza government in 2010 and founded a conflict resolution center, and neither Suri not his wife, a US citizen of Palestinian descent have done anything wrong. While Suri has spoken out about the genocide in Gaza, he is not a political activist, and as "a conflict studies scholar, it is well within his professional mandate to share his analysis of the war in Gaza." Despite this, Suri remains in ICE detention under reportedly horrible conditions in Texas.

2) https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/24/badar_khan_suri_georgetown_nader_hashemi

Georgetown Scholar Badar Khan Suri Remains in Immigration Jail After Masked Agents Snatched Him in D.C.

"Over the next 72 hours, Suri was transferred to multiple immigration detention centers. He’s currently jailed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, separated from his wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, and his three children. Suri’s arrest came just days after federal agents apprehended Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who’s being jailed at a different ICE detention center in Louisiana. Both are being detained under a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which gives the U.S. secretary of state authority to begin deportation proceedings against any noncitizen deemed a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests — even a green card holder, like Mahmoud Khalil is. On Thursday, a federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting Suri while he fights his case.

DHS has accused Suri of, quote, “spreading Hamas propaganda” and claimed Suri has, quote, “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist,” without providing any evidence. Suri’s legal team says he’s being targeted for his political views and free speech, and pointed to an aggressive doxxing and smearing campaign by pro-Israel groups targeting Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh."

3) https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/26/us/mahmoud-khalil-badar-khan-suri/index.html

A glimpse at complaints inside Louisiana and Texas ICE detention centers holding Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri

"Five-point shackles over open wounds. Foul-smelling milk provided in solitary confinement. Feces left in shower cells.

These incidents and others were reported to the ACLU and other legal aid providers between 2022 and 2024 by detainees at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center – where Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, facing possible deportation, has been locked up for two weeks. About 370 miles away, at a different facility in Texas, Georgetown University research fellow Badar Khan Suri faces a similar fate following a Trump administration order to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses.

Khan Suri was transferred Friday from the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana – where his lawyers said he was unable to get any contact with the outside world – to the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas.

“ICE detention centers are … effectively black boxes. They are deliberately placed in remote areas where they are out of sight from the public and difficult for families and legal representation to visit,” said Jeff Migliozzi, communications director with Freedom for Immigrants, a national advocacy group monitoring civil rights issues in immigration detention."

As I've mentioned in the past, I'm only a solitary analyst, working through health complications and chronic pain issues; as hard as I try, I can't talk about every story or I want to, or debunk as much spin as I observe in corporate media outlets. Unfortunately in the time since I last covered the Trump regime's ICE abduction of a student protest leader legally residing in the United States, for purely ideological reasons, the Pork Reich has expanded its war on international students who protested Israel's US-back genocide of Palestinians in Gaza; first targeting other students at Columbia, and now expanding to additional schools, like Tufts University, and the University of Alabama.

As I (and many others) predicted, the Trump regime's use of immigration powers to engage in fascist ideological policing, and its loyal Gestapo (DHS/ICE) didn't stop at the illegal abduction of Mahmoud Khalil. In the time I've been writing about other stories, I've failed to talk about a lot of important information and events that shed light on how Trump is using his authority over immigration enforcement to prosecute a war on protestors, and protect a genocide he now owns just as much as the last administration and the rest of the imperialist US establishment do. Unfortunately, I can't rewind time; but I'm going to include some short posts with links to articles talking about what we've missed. It's a lot of reading, but putting it all here in this thread at least allows me to reference these incidents later, once I'm up to current events.

Let's start by looking at Betar; an international, pro-Israel right wing extremist (so, fascist) group who claims to be behind the ICE abduction of Khalil and boasts about supplying the Trump regime with a target list of "thousands" of people for harassment and deportation.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/betar-deportation-list

Far-Right Group Sent List of Palestine Defenders to Trump Officials for Deportation

"Betar, the international far-right pro-Israel group that took credit for the Department of Homeland Security's arrest of former Columbia University graduate student and permanent U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil for protesting the annihilation of Gaza, claimed this week that it has sent "thousands of names" of Palestine defenders to Trump administration officials for possible deportation.

"Jihadis have no place in civilized nations," Betar said on social media Friday following the publication of a Guardian article on the extremist group's activities.

Earlier this week, Betar said: "We told you we have been working on deportations and will continue to do so. Expect naturalized citizens to start being picked up within the month. You heard it here first. Those who support jihad and intifada and originate in terrorist states will be sent back to those lands."

And just in case you think I'm being uncharitable about describing Betar as a fascist organization:

"Critics have voiced alarm about Betar's activities, pointing to the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League's recent designation of the organization as a hate group. Founded in 1923 by the early Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Betar has a long history of extremism. Its members—who included former Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin—took part in the Zionist terror campaign against Palestinian Arabs and British forces occupying Palestine in the 1940s.

Today, Betar supports Kahanism—a Jewish supremacist and apartheid movement named after Meir Kahane, an Orthodox rabbi convicted of terrorism before being assassinated in 1990—and is linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. The group has called for the ethnic cleansing and Israeli recolonization of Gaza. During Israel's assault on the coastal enclave, which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case, its account on the social media site X responded to the publication of a list of thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces by saying: "Not enough. We demand blood in Gaza!"

As noted elsewhere, White House officials refused to comment on whether or not they were working with Betar, but given that former executive director of the US chapter, Ross Glick, confirmed the existence of the targets list, and held bipartisan meetings about punishing anti-genocide campus protesters with Senators like (R) Ted Cruz, and (D) John Fetterman, it seems entirely plausible that the regime is using Betar's list to target international student protesters for fascist reprisals and deportations.