Metro

Columbia junior Yunseo Chung, facing deportation, engaged in ‘concerning’ conduct, including anti-Israel protest arrest: DHS

The Columbia University junior who filed suit against the Trump administration to stop her deportation engaged in “concerning conduct,” including being arrested at an anti-Israel protest earlier this month, the 𝓡Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.

Yunseo Chung, 21, a women’s studies major who emigrated to the US with her family from South Korea as a child, was charged with obstructing governmental administration and issued a desk appearance ticket by the NYPD🦋 after her March 5 arres🌜t at the Barnard College sit-in.

Columbia junior Yunseo Chung is facing deportation. CUNY Clear
Pro-Palestinian protesters gather at Times Square during a demonstration calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil on Saturday, March 15, 2025, in New York. James Keivom
Robert Miller

 “Yunseo Chung has engaged in concerning conduct, including when she was arrested by NYPD during a pro-Hamas protest at Barnard College,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

The protest at Barnard was sparked by the expulsion 𝐆of two students who barged into a Columbia class on modern Israel in January and to🅠ssed around antisemitic flyers.

Chung, a permanent US resident, was not in federal custody as of Monday, and is still ⛎facing deportation despite her lawsuit to stop the proceedings.

“She is being sought for removal proceedings under the immigration laws,” McLaughlin said. “Chung will have an opportunity to present her case before an immigration judge.”

 “Yunseo Chung has engaged in concerning conduct,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Department of Homeland Security

Chung’s legal team argued thaౠt the actions by the Trump administration were an attempt to “chill” her free spee🅺ch rights.

“The government’s retaliation against Ms. Chung comes in a broader context of retaliation against other n💜oncitizens who have exercised their First Amendmꦅent rights,” her legal team said in a statement.

Chung was a former high school valedictorian and social media editor for Quarto, the university’s official undergraduate literary magazine.