{shortcode-bab2e0b8c2059e934c73cd7bf157a21d6074776c}

The Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors filed a motion on Tuesday for an injunction to pause the Trump administration’s efforts to deport noncitizen students and faculty for expressing pro-Palestine views while their lawsuit continues.

The move comes one week after the Harvard chapter — in conjunction with the Middle East Studies Association, the national AAUP, and AAUP chapters at New York University and Rutgers University — sued the government, alleging it violated the First Amendment by limiting noncitizens’ rights to express pro-Palestine views.

In the Tuesday motion, the plaintiffs asked the court to prevent the administration from carrying out deportation orders until the case has been settled. They also asked to expedite the court deadlines “because Defendants have already sought to deport several noncitizen students and faculty.”

The original suit came more than two weeks after the arrest of recent Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained by Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agents for his role in organizing pro-Palestine protests. The Trump administration had vowed in January to deport international students who broke the law during pro-Palestine protests, but Khalil’s detainment indicated that policy would be used broadly against international student demonstrators.

Just hours after the suit was filed on March 25, Tufts University Ph.D. student Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE agents outside of her apartment in Boston without explanation.

The Tuesday motion also references comments made by Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio in a March 16 appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation program, where he said the department is approving visa revocations “every day now.”

History professor Kirsten A. Weld, who serves as president of Harvard’s AAUP chapter, said that there remains a “danger that additional noncitizen students are going to get arrested, detained and deported” while the case is pending, which provides grounds for the motion.

“This is an urgent, rapidly evolving situation in which more and more members of our campus communities are being caught up in these unlawful dragnets,” Weld said. “So it is urgently important that this activity be stopped.”

In the motion requesting the injunction, the plaintiffs argue that the administration’s intention to continue deporting students and faculty provide grounds for speeding up the case.

The original suit cites Harvard lecturer Lauren Kaminsky, who claims that her noncitizen colleagues have been less outspoken and refrained from teaching classes about politicized topics, including Palestine.

Two days before the AAUP’s lawsuits, nearly 200 Harvard affiliates participated in a rally hosted by the Harvard AAUP chapter to protest Khalil’s arrest and call for a more assertive response from the University to the Trump administration’s threats to higher education.

Alongside Rubio, the lawsuit names Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, as well as President Donald Trump and the government as defendants.

Media contacts for Rubio, Noem, Lyons, and Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.