Sanders slams Trump for trying to deport Columbia student: ‘You can’t exile political dissidents’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slammed the Trump administration’s attempt to deport a Columbia University student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

“You can’t exile political dissidents. Not in the United States,” Sanders wrote Tuesday in a post on the social platform X. 

His comments came hours after a federal judge ruled that Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old lawful permanent resident, cannot be removed from the country until the court had a chance to consider her arguments against the effort more carefully.

U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, an appointee of former President Clinton, issued the order Tuesday. 

“Trump is trying to deport a Columbia Univ. student who has been a permanent resident in the U.S. since she was 7,” Sanders wrote. 

“Her ‘crime’? Attending a protest against the war in Gaza. No, Mr. President. This is a democracy.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement was looking to detain Chung under a State Department policy that allows for the removal of individuals who “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

The Trump administration cited the same deportation measure to order the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, another recent Columbia student.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously initiated removal efforts for Khalil, who was known as a pro-Palestinian activist who staged protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, under Section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Lawmakers have argued Khalil is a “political prisoner,” while Chung’s lawyers say deportation actions against her are “unprecedented” and “unjustifiable.”

“The government’s actions are an unprecedented and unjustifiable assault on First Amendment and other rights, one that cannot stand basic legal scrutiny,” Chung’s lawyers wrote in court filings. 

“Simply put, immigration enforcement—here, immigration detention and threatened deportation—may not be used as a tool to punish noncitizen speakers who express political views disfavored by the current administration,” they continued. 

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, the City University of New York’s CLEAR Project and Human Rights First represent Chung.