ACLU Statement on The Dream Act Introduction

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union today published an open letter to colleges and universities nationwide urging them to reject any federal pressure to surveil or punish international students and faculty based on constitutionally protected speech. This letter is prompted by two executive orders — Executive Order 14161, titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats” signed on Jan. 20, 2025, and Executive Order 14188, titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” signed on Jan. 29, 2025 — and related communications from the White House. The guidance is especially timely after an early morning Truth Social post from President Trump threatening to stop federal funding for “any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” and proposing that “agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.” “It is disturbing to see the White House threatening freedom of speech and academic freedom on U.S. college campuses so blatantly. We stand in solidarity with university leaders in their commitment to free speech, open debate, and peaceful dissent on campus,” said Cecillia Wang, legal director of the ACLU and co-author of the letter. “Trump’s latest coercion campaign, attempting to turn university administrators against their own students and faculty, harkens back to the McCarthy era and is at odds with American constitutional values and the basic mission of universities.” According to the ACLU, the White House is attempting to pressure university officials to target immigrant and international students, faculty, and staff, including holders of non-immigrant visas and lawful permanent residents or others on a path to U.S. citizenship, for exercising their First Amendment rights. The letter outlines four key principles universities should adhere to when addressing campus speech: Colleges and universities should encourage robust discussion and exploration of ideas by students, faculty, and staff, regardless of their nationality or immigration status. Nothing obligates universities to act as deputies in immigration law enforcement — to the contrary, universities do not and should not veer so far from their core mission for good reasons. Schools must protect the privacy of all students, including immigrant and international students. Schools must abide by the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. “The federal government cannot mandate expulsion of students or threaten funding cuts to punish constitutionally protected speech on campus,” said Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “While the administration can enforce Title VI to ensure a learning environment free from harassment, it cannot force universities into adopting restrictive speech codes that silence the viewpoints the government disfavors.” This is the fourth set of guidance from the ACLU to universities since 2023. Dozens of ACLU affiliates have taken legal action, conducted know your rights trainings, or issued additional guidance related to protest on campuses.

Immigrants’ rights advocates sued the Trump administration to halt the transfer of immigrants from the United States to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba under President Trump’s recent order.

WASHINGTON — Immigrants’ rights advocates sued the Trump administration today to halt the transfer of immigrants from the United States to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba under President Trump’s recent order. The American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Constitutional Rights, International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and ACLU of the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit on behalf of noncitizens in the United States at risk of being transferred to Guantánamo. Guantánamo is home to one of the world’s most notorious prisons, used when the U.S. government has attempted to operate in secret, without accountability. The groups filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of detainees’ family members and legal service providers seeking access to immigrants who were transferred from the United States and held at Guantánamo. That lawsuit remains pending. Today's lawsuit seeks to block transfers to Guantánamo and requests emergency stays for 10 individuals in the United States who are at risk of being transferred without any legal authority, in violation of federal law and the U.S. Constitution. “Sending immigrants to a remote abusive prison is not only illegal and unprecedented, but illogical given the additional cost and logistical complications. Ultimately this is about theatrics,” said Lee Gelernt, lead counsel and deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “As we know from decades of challenging indefinite detention there, Guantánamo has no purpose other than to project lawlessness, domination, and cruelty,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy. “The courts, as they have before, must again today reject the Trump administration's latest unlawful power grab and put a stop to their plans for another island detention camp.” “Never before has the federal government moved immigrants held in the United States on civil immigration charges to Guantánamo. People are suffering under this new order and the Trump administration’s lawless actions will not go unchallenged,” said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “For decades, Guantánamo has been the site of grave human rights abuses perpetrated by the U.S. government,” said Kimberly Grano, staff attorney, U.S. litigation, with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). “The Trump administration is exploiting this sordid history to send the message that no cruelty is off limits in its assault on the rights and humanity of immigrants. This lawless project to take people from U.S. soil and detain them at this notorious offshore prison must be stopped.” “Nothing in U.S. law authorizes ICE to detain people in foreign countries, but that appears to be of no concern to the Trump administration,” said Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at the ACLU of the District of Columbia. “For an administration that has been touting supposed efficiency with taxpayer dollars, President Trump seems eager to waste money on unnecessary and unlawful mistreatment of immigrants.” The complaint is here: https://www.aclu.org/documents/complaint-escalona-v-noem Emergency stay motion: https://www.aclu.org/documents/emergency-stay-motion Memo in support of emergency stay motion: https://www.aclu.org/cases/escalona-v-noem?document=Memo-in-Support-of-Emergency-Stay-Motion