NEW YORK, July 8, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A group of US university professors told a court Monday that President Donald Trump's administration has created a climate of fear on campuses by seeking to deport foreign students with pro-Palestinian views.

Academics from institutions including Harvard University claim students are being targeted based on their ideologies, breaching free speech protections under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

The Trump administration, which has clashed with elite US colleges over refuted claims of anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism, has said it is simply adhering to existing immigration and visa laws.

However, the arrests of several pro-Palestinian student activists, such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, have stirred anger in recent months.

During the two-week trial in Boston, the group of professors is hoping to persuade Republican-appointed Judge William Young to protect students and staff who engage in pro-Palestinian advocacy from being deported.

Nadje Al-Ali, a Middle East and anthropology professor at Brown University, told the court she could face repercussions for her work.

"Although these were students, I felt like, okay, next in line will be faculty, and so it definitely felt vulnerable and targeted as a result," she said.

Al-Ali, a German citizen with Iraqi roots, said she had avoided attending protests against the Trump administration's policies out of fear of being filmed and then "targeted."

In the case of Khalil, a Columbia University student who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, the US government argued that his presence in the country posed a threat to US national security.

"The case is an immensely important test of the First Amendment at a moment when we need the First Amendment's protections more than ever," said the Knight First Amendment Institution at Columbia, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit.