Defend free expression against Marco Rubio’s speech police

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is claiming authority to expel any non-citizen at any time for any speech the administration deems contrary to its “foreign policy.” 

Today the administration is using that power to expel student critics of Israel — not for anything they did, but for what they said. There is nothing stopping this or another administration from using that authority tomorrow against critics of other countries, whether they’re protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or China’s oppression of Uyghurs.

That’s wrong. Requiring foreign students and faculty to self-censor their views about American foreign policy in order to stay in the country violates American principles of free speech and the First Amendment. We at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) want to fight it. We are looking for students, faculty, student organizations, and institutions of higher learning who are affected by the administration’s threat to deport non-citizens for protected speech. 

Maybe you are:

• A student or faculty member in the United States on a visa or green card, and you’re self-censoring.
• A student organization losing members because they fear they could be deported.
• A student publication censoring articles to protect non-citizen authors.
• A college whose students are at risk of deportation if they exercise their First Amendment rights.

If that’s you, please contact FIRE for a confidential discussion about whether FIRE might be able to help. If you know someone who might be affected, send them this page (https://thefire.org/SOS).
 

First Name

Last Name

Email

Phone

University

Tell us a little about yourself

Comments