The U.S. Department of Homeland Security decried a lawsuit, in which The Stanford Daily, the student paper of Stanford University, alleges that its writers are afraid to cover Israel and the Palestinians and self-censor themselves, because they fear the federal government will deport them.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the department, told JNS that the lawsuit is “baseless” and “political.”
“DHS doesn’t arrest people based on protected speech, so the plaintiffs’ premise is incorrect,” she told JNS. “DHS takes its role in removing threats to the public and our communities seriously, and the idea that enforcing federal law in that regard constitutes some kind of prior restraint on speech is laughable.”
“There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here,” McLaughlin said. “When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”
Will Creeley, legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which filed the lawsuit with the firm Van Der Hout on behalf of The Stanford Daily, stated that “the First Amendment bars the government from punishing protected speech. Period.”
“In our free country, you shouldn’t have to show your papers to speak your mind,” he stated.
The lawsuit names the U.S. secretaries of homeland security and of state as defendants. (The U.S. State Department declined to comment on pending litigation.)
Greta Reich, editor-in-chief of the Daily, stated that she has “had reporters turn down assignments, request the removal of some of their articles and even quit the paper, because they fear deportation for being associated with speaking on political topics, even in a journalistic capacity.”
“The Daily is losing the voices of a significant portion of our student population,” she said.
