Marco Rubio personally signed off on arrests of pro-Palestine students, documents show
Source: The Independent
Friday 23 January 2026 12:05 EST
Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally approved the arrest and removal of five international student activists for their Palestinian advocacy and writings against the war in Gaza, according to government documents unsealed by a federal judge. The release of the documents follows a months-long legal battle which has accused the Trump administration of an unconstitutional and retaliatory campaign against campus activists.
Last week, District Judge William Young, a Reagan-era appointee, found that Trump officials including Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem engaged in an “unconstitutional conspiracy” and “failed in their duties to protect the Constitution” by violating the First Amendment rights of students and faculty with threats to strip them of visas, arrest and deport them.
Dozens of internal government documents unsealed Thursday reveal how Rubio directed officials to deport several high-profile activist figures, including Columbia University’s Mahmoud Khalil, before their arrests and detentions last year.
One senior diplomat repeatedly cautioned Rubio against targeting those students and stressed that stripping their visas and green cards over “actions inextricably tied to speech protected under the First Amendment” would likely face an avalanche of lawsuits, the documents show.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/marco-rubio-student-protests-palestine-b2906597.html
Link to FILING (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282460/gov.uscourts.mad.282460.315.0_2.pdf
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