A federal judge says the Trump administration unconstitutionally targeted noncitizens for deportation over pro-Palestinian protests. U.S. District Judge William Young issued the ruling on Tuesday, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the policy they describe as ideological deportation violates the First Amendment. The decision came after a trial in which plaintiffs presented witnesses who testified that the Trump administration had launched a coordinated effort to target students and scholars who had criticized Israel or showed sympathy for Palestinians. An email to the Homeland Security department for comment was not immediately returned.

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. government to free former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil from immigration detention. Khalil has been held since early March while the Trump administration sought to deport him over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. The judge said Friday it would be "highly, highly unusual" for the government to continue to detain a legal U.S. resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn't been accused of any violence. The Trump administration says Khalil must be expelled from the country because his continued presence could harm American foreign policy. His lawyers say the Trump administration is simply trying to crack down on free speech.

A federal judge in Vermont has released a Turkish Tufts University student detained in a Louisiana immigration center more than six weeks after she was arrested while walking along a street in a Boston suburb. U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington released Rumeysa Ozturk on Friday pending a final decision on her claim that she's been illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote lsat year that criticized the school's response to Israel's war in Gaza. Ozturk appeared at her bail hearing remotely from Louisiana, describing her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate degree focusing on children and social media.