The Trump administration must be stopped in its efforts to revoke visas based on speech | Opinion

The Trump administration has revoked hundreds of visas solely due to a disagreement with personal views held by these individuals. This blatantly violates the First Amendment: the government is never allowed to act against people in the United States because of the ideas they express.

In fact, Immigration and Customs Enforcement posted on social media that its goal was to stop illegal ideas from coming into the country (this post was later taken down). But under the First Amendment, there is no such thing as an illegal idea.

The law is clear that the First Amendment protects the speech of citizens and non-citizens alike. This was the court’s explicit holding in Bridges v. Wixon in 1945, a case that involved an attempt by the U.S. government to deport Harry Bridges, a labor leader in San Francisco, for his alleged communist views. Bridges, who was from Australia, was not a U.S. citizen.

Justice William Douglas, in his majority opinion in favor of Bridges, spoke in words that are particularly important today: “Though deportation is not technically a criminal proceeding, it visits a great hardship on the individual and deprives him of the right to stay and live and work in this land of freedom. That deportation is a penalty — at times a most serious one — cannot be doubted. Meticulous care must be exercised lest the procedure by which he is deprived of that liberty not meet the essential standards of fairness.”

Justice Frank Murphy, in a concurring opinion, began by condemning the action against Bridges, saying, “The record in this case will stand forever as a monument to man’s intolerance of man.” Murphy then explained how the First Amendment protected Bridges, as it does everyone in the country — citizen and non-citizen alike.

“Once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders,” Murphy said. “Such rights include those protected by the First and the Fifth Amendments and by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. None of these provisions acknowledges any distinction between citizens and resident aliens.”

The Trump administration has obviously never read this decision — or perhaps it just doesn’t care about the Constitution. The revocation of visas, as the Supreme Court recognized, imposes great harms on individuals who are subjected to this unconstitutional treatment and their families.

It also has a tremendous chilling effect on speech: Those in the country on visas are now — understandably — very afraid to speak out for fear of the consequences. They know if they express a viewpoint that the Trump administration does not like, they face deportation and removal.

The Trump administration has specifically targeted those who have expressed pro-Palestinian positions. But that is their First Amendment right. Indeed, even if they voiced antisemitic views (though criticizing Israel’s policies should not be confused with antisemitism) that is constitutionally protected speech. Time and again, the Supreme Court has made clear that hate speech is generally safeguarded by the First Amendment.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with the views expressed is irrelevant. I always teach my students that the only way for my speech to be protected tomorrow is to safeguard the speech I do not like today. If the government can deport people because of their speech, it has enormous power to stifle any expression that it does not like.

No one should be sanguine that the Trump administration will stop with targeting non-citizens. We have already seen it attempt to severely punish law firms — in clear violation of the First Amendment — because of disagreements over their advocacy.

It is thus imperative that the Trump administration be stopped in its efforts to revoke visas based on speech. Courts must enforce the First Amendment. Here, too, the words of Murphy in Bridges v. Wixon are exactly on point: “When the immutable freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights have been so openly and concededly ignored, the full wrath of constitutional condemnation descends upon the action taken by the government.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2025 at 11:28 AM with the headline "The Trump administration must be stopped in its efforts to revoke visas based on speech | Opinion."