Multiple academic groups filed suit against the Trump administration Tuesday over its actions to deport foreign students and faculty who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on campuses.  

The American Association of University Professors, the Middle East Studies Association and Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University argue the administration has created an environment “terrorizing students and faculty for their exercise of First Amendment rights in the past, intimidating them from exercising those rights now, and silencing political viewpoints that the government disfavors.”  

The federal government revoked the student visa of one Columbia student and is looking to take away the green card of another who participated in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

The crackdown started with Mahmoud Khalil, a legal immigrant who graduated Columbia in December and was a lead negotiator of its pro-Palestinian encampment. Khalil was arrested by federal authorities and transferred to a facility in Louisiana, but he has not been accused of any crime amid the White House’s efforts to deport him.

“The First Amendment means the government can’t arrest, detain, or deport people for lawful political expression it’s as simple as that. This practice is one we’d ordinarily associate with the most repressive political regimes, and it should have no place in our democracy,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute. 

The federal government has argued it can strip the immigration status of foreign citizens who the secretary of State determines harms the nation’s foreign policy. Only an immigration judge has the authority to remove a green card.

The Hill has reached out to Department of Homeland Security for comment.