NYU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which sued the federal government last week for its detainment of noncitizens on college campuses protesting the war in Gaza, asked a Massachusetts court on Tuesday to block the Trump administration from carrying out mass arrests and deportations of student and faculty protesters during the ongoing lawsuit. The March 25 complaint — in conjunction with AAUP chapters at Harvard University and Rutgers University, as well as the Middle East Studies Association — claims the government has arbitrarily discriminated against noncitizens and created a “climate of repression and fear” on university campuses. It specifically challenges the detainments of nine pro-Palestinian protesters over the last three weeks, including Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk. “It’s not only the people, in this case noncitizens, being silenced with these threats that are harmed — but their students, their colleagues, everybody else at the university is harmed when those people are silenced,” CAS professor Sonya Posmentier told WSN. “The complaint hinges on this important part of the First Amendment that guarantees our right to listen.” Written by Yezen Saadah Photo by Daniel Arensberg Click the link to read more. https://lnkd.in/gmugcApy
