March 25 (UPI) — A Columbia University student and American resident has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump and his administration for its alleged efforts to remove her from the United States.
The suit, filed Monday by 21-year-old Yunseo Chung, alleges that “the federal government began a series of unlawful efforts to arrest, detain, and remove” her from the country, despite the fact she has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old.
The suit states that Chung is now “at active risk of being put in immigration detention and deported from the only country she has ever known.”
She has requested that the court “issue a temporary restraining order barring the government from detaining her based on her protected speech and in the absence of independent, legitimate grounds.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN Chung “is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws,” and “has engaged in concerning conduct, including when she was arrested by NYPD during a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard College.”
The spokesperson also said that “Chung will have an opportunity to present her case before an immigration judge.”
Chung said she has taken part in a number of demonstrations and protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict at Columbia since 2023. She was also arrested on March 5 by the NYPD for “obstruction of governmental administration” during a protest against “what she believed to be the excessive punishments meted out by the Columbia administration to student protesters facing campus disciplinary proceedings.”
She was issued a Desk Appearance Ticket by police, which is to be decided by the New York City court system as defined by city law.
However, Chung said in the suit that in the days after that incident, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived at her parents’ home with a warrant for her arrest, and that her lawyer was advised by the federal government “that her lawful permanent resident status is being ‘revoked.'”
Chung’s suit further alleges that ICE executed a search of her dorm and another residence in search of her immigration records, occupancy agreements and other personal documents, even though the warrant they carried did not target her.