Lawful permanent residents like Mahmoud Khalil have a right to freedom of speech – but does that protect them from deportation?
- Written by Erin Corcoran, Professor of immigration, refguee and asylum law, University of Notre Dame
The detention of noncitizen university students after their Palestinian rights activism raises questions about the limits of free speech. Rob Dobi/Moment/Getty Images The Trump administration has revoked the visas of more than 1,000 foreign university students since January 2025. Many of the individual cases that have made headlines center on...


