Attorneys for a 21-year-old Columbia University student fighting deportation asked a federal judge late Thursday to order the Trump istration to produce a letter from Sec. of State Marco Rubio that targets two activists for removal under a rarely-invoked federal act.

The attorneys want to uncover if the name of the student — Yunseo Chung, a green card holder whose family moved to the United States from South Korea when she was seven — is the one that’s redacted from Rubio’s two-page memo, which first publicly surfaced Thursday.

The other student named in the letter is Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a Columbia graduate who served as a mediator between pro-Palestinian groups and the university during a series of protests last year.

Khalil, also a green card holder, is fighting his deportation in a Louisiana immigration court and in a federal court in New Jersey. 

The Rubio memo, first reported by the Associated Press, was made public ahead of Khalil’s immigration hearing on Friday. 

It does not accuse Khalil of any criminal conduct or repeat allegations in earlier court filings that he misrepresented himself in his green card application. Instead, it flatly asserts that the Secretary of State can deport any noncitizen whose presence in the U.S. he judges would compromise the nation’s foreign policy interests, even on the basis of “expected beliefs” that are “otherwise lawful.” 

If Chung’s name does appear in the undated missive from Rubio, as her attorneys suspect, it would mean her transformation from an under-the-radar Columbia University junior to a top government target occurred in the span of just two days in March. 

She was arrested at a protest at Barnard College on the afternoon of March 5, and her name was shared with Rubio on March 7 by the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Securities Investigations, according to the Rubio memo.

Attorneys for Chung, who in their motion to the federal court judge in Manhattan also sought five other types of documents from the government, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Trump Crackdown

The Rubio letter provides the federal government’s most detailed explanation yet for its basis for seeking the deportations of Khalil and presumably Chung, both legal permanent residents. 

It cites a rarely-invoked provision under the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows a Secretary of State to personally determine that a noncitizen is deportable. 

“I have determined that the activities and presence of these aliens in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest,” Rubio wrote. 

“The public actions and continued presence of [redacted] and Khalil in the United States undermine U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”

The letter says Rubio’s determination was based on information provided by DHS, ICE and HSI, regarding the two students’ participation in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities.”

While it doesn’t include any alleged illegal activity by Khalil, it says the other student’s determination is based on “citations for unlawful activity during these protests.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Dept. of State said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation or on the authenticity of documents that were “allegedly leaked.”

The actions against the two green card holders come amid a flurry of federal government activity targeting dozens of universities across the country for allegedly not taking enough action to stamp out anti-Semitic activity on their campuses in recent years. 

As part of its crackdown, the Trump istration has threatened to withhold billions of dollars in funding from universities that don’t cooperate with the federal government — including $400 million from Columbia alone. 

Last month, Columbia’s leaders agreed to a host of policy and rule changes that conformed with specific demands from the federal government, in a move that other university leaders have warned amounts to a compromise of academic freedom and integrity.

The Trump istration has also been targeting holders of student visas — largely but not entirely based on their alleged protest activity against Israel’s war in Gaza — revoking at least 300 student visas in recent weeks. 

Quick Escalation

The March 5th demonstration in the lobby of the library at Barnard College, the women’s college d with Columbia, started around 1 p.m. 

About two dozen students wearing masks gathered to protest the disciplinary action taken against pro-Palestinian students for prior disruptions at Columbia and Barnard, chanting “Free Palestine!” according to published reports at the time.   

After 4 p.m., NYPD police began to clear the lobby because of an alleged bomb threat, leaving the protesters and cops from the department’s Strategic Response Group in close proximity outside the building. 

Around 5 p.m., the protestors, including Chung, were warned five times that they would be arrested if they didn’t disperse, according to police officer testimony contained in court documents.

One officer said he viewed body-worn camera footage that showed Chung “interlock arms with another individual and push against the line of police officers.”

The officers said Chung’s actions “impeded me from clearing the area and setting up a perimeter.”

At 5:11 p.m., Chung was arrested and charged with obstructing governmental istration in the second degree — a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail — and disorderly conduct. 

She was fingerprinted, which would have entered her information into an NYPD database that’s shared across local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, and later released with a desk appearance ticket.

Her next court date in that case is scheduled for May 6. Her attorney in that case declined comment. 

Within roughly 48 hours of her arrest, things escalated quickly.

On March 7, Khalil and apparently Chung were named in communications between Homeland Security Investigations and Rubio. The next day, according to a legal filing submitted by Chung’s attorneys, an ICE official signed an istrative warrant for her arrest.

On March 9, ICE agents showed up at Chung’s parents home looking for their daughter, on the same day they arrested Khalil. 

On March 10, a Department of Justice official told one of Chung’s attorneys that her student visa had been revoked. When the attorney noted that Chung was a legal permanent resident, the official responded, “the Secretary of State has revoked that” also, according to the court filing.

Eight days after Chung’s arrest, federal agents executed a search warrant of her campus dormitory, which Chung had already vacated. Her attorneys recently questioned whether the feds provided false or incorrect information to a magistrate judge in securing the warrant.

On March 24, attorneys for Chung filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court seeking to halt what they saw as the government’s overreach against activity that’s protected by the first amendment. 

The next day, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald approved a temporary restraining order that prevents the government from detaining Chung or transferring her to another district without court approval. 

As of early Friday afternoon, she had yet to rule on the request for documents submitted earlier this month and Thursday by Chung’s attorneys.