The Trump administration’s push earlier this year to arrest and deport international students for their pro-Palestinian activism was illegal, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, calling the crackdown a “truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech.”

In a sweeping rebuke, U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston said that the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department sought to target non-citizens “for speaking out” with the “goal of tamping down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated” students.......

The bench trial — decided by a judge rather than a jury — sought to answer the question of whether noncitizens in the United States have the same rights to freedom of speech as citizens.

To pursue and remove noncitizen protesters, the Trump administration deployed the immigration enforcement apparatus in unprecedented ways, according to witness testimony......

In filings, lawyers for the plaintiffs and the government clashed over the question of whether noncitizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens. In a court document, lawyers for the Justice Department argued that noncitizens’ right to freedom of speech is already constrained, pointing to the fact that they are lawfully prohibited from donating to political candidates.

But the plaintiffs’ lawyers cited decisions by multiple courts affirming that noncitizens who were lawfully admitted to the country are entitled to “the full panoply” of First Amendment rights.