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Since March 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration have waged an unprecedented assault on free speech, targeting foreign university students for deportation based on bedrock protected speech like writing op-eds and peacefully attending protests. Their attack is casting a pall of fear over millions of noncitizens, who worry that voicing the “wrong” opinion about America or Israel will result in deportation. Noncitizens in the United States . Despite that, Rubio is wielding two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act to target lawfully present noncitizens for their opinions.

The  allows the secretary of state to initiate deportation proceedings against  any noncitizen for protected speech if the secretary “” the speech “compromises a compelling United States foreign policy interest.” The  enables the secretary of state to revoke the “visa or other documentation” of any noncitizen “at any time” for any reason.  

The Trump administration is proudly using the provisions to revoke the visas of and to deport lawfully present noncitizens for their speech if the government deems it anti-American or anti-Israel. For example, Rubio used the first provision to target Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil for protected pro-Palestinian speech and the second to target Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk for coauthoring an op-ed.

Plaintiffs in ��֭����’s lawsuit represent the wide range of groups and individuals whose speech is threatened by the continued assault on noncitizens’ protected speech. FIRErepresents The Stanford Daily, the independent, student-run newspaper at Stanford University, where writers with student visas are declining assignments related to the conflict in the Middle East, worried that even reporting on the war will endanger their immigration status. And FIRErepresents two legal noncitizens with no criminal record who engaged in pro-Palestinian speech and now fear deportation and visa revocation because of their expression

On August 6, 2025, FIRE sued on behalf of The Stanford Daily, Jane Doe, and John Doe. That same day, FIREalso moved for a preliminary injunction to halt the revocation of visas based on protected speech.