The Morning: Do immigrants have freedom of speech?

Plus, Ukraine talks, the New York mayoral race and Wes Anderson.

View in browser|nytimes.com March 24, 2025 By German Lopez Good morning. We're covering immigrants' constitutional rights — as well as Ukraine talks, the New York mayoral race and Wes Anderson. At a demonstration in New York City.  David Dee Delgado/Reuters Immigrant silence The Trump administration has tried in recent weeks to deport several immigrants who spoke out against Israel. First, it arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder who'd joined pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. Officials also arrested a Georgetown University researcher with an academic visa. They deported a nephrologist at Brown University, even though she had a valid visa. Another student activist at Columbia fled to Canada after immigration officials came to her home. President Trump has said that more arrests will come — a test of the government's ability to deport people with views that he disagrees with. How is this legal? The First Amendment, after all, protects freedom of speech in nearly absolute terms. It allows people to espouse even the most unsavory views, including support for genocide, and face no criminal penalty as a result. But Trump is taking advantage of a genuinely unsettled aspect of the law: Does the Constitution protect noncitizens' freedom of speech? Today's newsletter will look at the arguments. Trump's case The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment applies to noncitizens in the United States when it comes to criminal and civil penalties. But those protections don't necessarily apply to deportations, the court has found. The federal government has nearly absolute power over immigration, including its ability to deport noncitizens; it gets to decide who comes and then stays in this country, potentially at the expense of constitutional rights. In 1952, for example, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could deport immigrants for Communist Party membership without violating the First Amendment. (I experienced this firsthand: A government official asked me if I was a communist during my interview to become a U.S. citizen in the 2000s.) More specifically, administration officials cite a 1952 statute that lets the government deport immigrants, even green-card holders, for views that hamper U.S. foreign policy. The administration says that Khalil and others supported Hamas and Hezbollah, designated terrorist groups. That supposed support seems to be limited to the immigrants' advocacy — social media posts, fliers, protests, attendance at a Hezbollah leader's funeral. The government has not accused them of sending money or other assistance to those groups. It says that speech is enough to justify deportation. Last week, the administration leveled new accusations against Khalil. It said that he failed to disclose his membership in pro-Palestinian groups or his work for the British government when he applied for a green card. The hastily added accusations appear to be an attempt to sidestep free speech concerns about his case, my colleague Jonah Bromwich wrote. Immigrants do have due process rights, and Khalil's case is currently going through the courts. But the administration has tried to bypass even those protections in other cases. It cited the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants without any kind of hearing in court. It claimed, but did not prove, that these migrants were members of criminal gangs supported by the Venezuelan government. The administration's efforts to punish speech and bypass due process would be blatantly unconstitutional for a U.S. citizen. But for immigrants, the legality of the government's actions is less certain. The opposition This approach leaves immigrants with no practical free speech rights, Nadine Strossen, former president of the A.C.L.U., told me. The First Amendment allows us to speak freely without fear of legal retribution. But if an immigrant's political advocacy gets him deported, he does have to worry about retribution — and may choose not to speak at all. While conservatives may feel empowered now, their approach could backfire in the future. Suppose that conservative immigrants — say, Trump-supporting Venezuelans, known as MAGAzuelans — attend a Make America Great Again rally. A Democratic administration could claim that participants of the rally supported an enemy of the United States by, for example, opposing aid to Ukraine. That administration could then try to deport the immigrants for their speech. This is the slippery slope of exceptions to free speech and other constitutional rights: What counts as a violent act? What is a terrorist group? Who is an enemy of the United States? What does it mean to support them? A president can twist the answers to these questions to fit any agenda and go after people with opposing views, bypassing fundamental rights. What's next The Supreme Court has not directly addressed the issue of immigrants' free speech rights since the Red Scare of the 1940s and '50s. Lower courts have, but they have been divided. As the Trump administration tests the law, the Supreme Court will likely have to chime in once again. In the meantime, immigrants have reason to worry. Already, college officials have warned immigrant students that nobody can protect them. In that sense, the Trump administration's approach is already working: It has likely persuaded immigrants to stay quiet about causes that the president disagrees with. THE LATEST NEWS War in Ukraine Russian and U.S. officials are meeting in Saudi Arabia to discuss details of a limited cease-fire in Ukraine. The U.S. and Ukraine met yesterday. Vladimir Putin's war aims haven't shifted, but he sees economic and geopolitical benefits in humoring Trump's push for a peace deal, Anton Troianovski writes. See what Ukrainian families of children with long-term illnesses have endured in the war. More International News Pope Francis Tiziana Fabi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Pope Francis made his first public appearance in more than a month, waving briefly from the balcony of a hospital in Rome. The hospital has discharged him. Sudan's army now controls most of central Khartoum, a shift in the tide of the country's civil war. A Times reporter and photographer were the first Western journalists to re-enter the ravaged capital. Canada's new prime minister, Mark Carney, called an early federal election for next month. The Israeli cabinet moved to dismiss the attorney general. Critics say the move is part of an effort to curb judicial independence. Israel expanded its offensive in Gaza. It has taken control of more territory and issued new evacuation orders for residents who recently returned to their homes. Protests erupted in Turkey after the authorities removed and jailed Istanbul's mayor, a rival of the president. Trump Administration Migrants in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in December. Paul Ratje for The New York Times Lawyers will ask a federal judge today to maintain protections against deportation for nearly 350,000 Venezuelans. The U.S. plans to send Usha Vance and senior officials to Greenland this week. The island's prime minister called the move aggressive. At the National Institutes of Health, senior scientists fear that Trump policies could undermine research into obesity and cancer. Mayor Eric Adams's office instructed New York officials to avoid criticizing Trump and has screened agency statements closely. Elon Musk's DOGE took over the U.S. Institute of Peace's building after a nearly five-hour standoff. Read what happened. Radio Martí, a U.S.-funded broadcaster, provoked Cuba's communist government for four decades. Trump dismantled it in days. The White House is trying to recruit corporate sponsors for its Easter Egg Roll. More on Politics Republican lawmakers in Montana, frustrated with liberal judges, are considering bills that would reshape the state's judiciary. Mia Love, the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, died at 49. She was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2022. At a Covid memorial, candidates running for New York mayor urged voters not to support Andrew Cuomo because of his pandemic response. Business The C.E.O. of Netflix, Reed Hastings, donated $50 million to his alma mater, Bowdoin College, to research artificial intelligence. It's the college's largest ever donation. DoorDash announced a partnership with the finance company Klarna to let customers take out loans for food deliveries. Other Big Stories Two wildfires in North Carolina more than doubled in size and raged uncontained. The authorities ordered residents to evacuate. The Delta plane that flipped over and burned after landing in Toronto last month had been descending too fast, a report found. A thief in Orlando, Fla., swallowed a nearly $800,000 pair of diamond earrings. The police got them back. Opinions Trump's efforts to mute Voice of America, and other government-funded broadcasters overseas, strip the U.S. of an effective instrument of soft power, Serge Schmemann writes. Many gay and closeted teen boys find that waitresses at Hooters are the first people to accept them as they are, Peter Rothpletz writes. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss Chuck Schumer and higher education. Here are columns by David French on Canada and Ukraine, and Margaret Renkl on the measles vaccine. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS In Hawaii. Michelle Mishina Kunz for The New York Times Travel: Spend 36 hours in Hilo, Hawaii. "Don't think, just solve": Watch the world's fastest Rubik's cube solver do his thing. Vacation dreams: In Japan, timeshares are back. Work Friend: How to talk to a neurodiverse colleague. Q. and A.: A lost-pet detective has to understand both humans and animals. Ask Vanessa: "What's going on with clothing prices?" Most clicked yesterday: Use this simple technique to fall asleep. Metropolitan Diary: Curtains for this flirtation. Lives Lived: Max Frankel fled Nazi Germany as a boy and rose to pinnacles of American journalism as a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The Times and later as its executive editor. He died at 94. SPORTS Men's college basketball: The Sweet 16 is set after a dizzying day of basketball. See who won. M.L.B.: The former Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner announced that his 14-year-old son had died unexpectedly. Soccer: The U.S. men's national team lost at home to Canada for the first time in decades. ARTS AND IDEAS Some memoirists' friends. From top left: Chloe Dalton; Helen Macdonald; Catherine Raven; Frieda Hughes Writers have long described their relationships with dogs and cats in literature. In recent years, however, the pet memoir has expanded to include a number of other domesticated animals including chickens, goats, pigs, alpacas and donkeys. These stories explore what it means to connect with an untamed creature. More on culture A new exhibition explores Wes Anderson's distinctive visual style through his movie's props. Conan O'Brien was awarded the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center. People joked about Trump's takeover. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Stir-fry turmeric-black pepper chicken with asparagus. Keep your relationship fun. Use these little-known iPhone tricks. Save space with a tiny air fryer. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was celibacy. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018