A tech group that has received funding from left-leaning nonprofits is suing the Trump administration over the threatened deportation or revocation of visas for noncitizens the State Department identified as trying to censor Americans.
While the administration says the policy targets foreigners seeking to censor Americans, the plaintiff, the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, alleges in the complaint that the government is “excluding and deporting noncitizens whose work involves combating misinformation and disinformation.”
The litigation in the D.C. District Court is a battleground in which both sides claim to be defending free speech.
The plaintiff asserts that the administration’s policy violates the First and Fifth Amendment rights of noncitizens who are in the country legally, including researchers, scientists, nonprofit staff, and educators. It also alleges it violates the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that governs how executive branch regulations are created and implemented.
“Researchers who help everyday people understand the impacts of Big Tech are scared that they and their families will be targeted for detention and deportation under this policy,” said Brandi Geurkink, executive director of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, in a public statement.
The group says that several coalition members were blocked from the United States under the policy because they researched “online hate speech and platform advertising policies.”
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“At a time when AI is rapidly changing our lives and economy and people are already worried about their freedom and safety online, we need independent researchers more than ever,” Geurkink added. “This policy is meant to censor researchers into silence and keep the public in the dark, and that’s exactly what it’s doing.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is named as the lead defendant in the lawsuit.
Last May, Rubio announced that the State Department would implement a new visa restriction that applies to foreigners complicit in censoring Americans.
“Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans,” Rubio posted on X last May. “Free speech is essential to the American way of life—a birthright over which foreign governments have no authority.”
In December, Rubio announced that five people accused of trying to censor American viewpoints would be subject to visa restrictions.
“Based on these determinations, the Department has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on agents of the global censorship-industrial complex who, as a result, will be generally barred from entering the United States,” Rubio said in a statement.
“President [Donald] Trump has been clear that his America First foreign policy rejects violations of American sovereignty. Extraterritorial overreach by foreign censors targeting American speech is no exception.”
The lawsuit was filed in partnership with the Knight First Amendment Institute, a litigation organization based at Columbia University, and Protect Democracy, a left-of-center litigation group that has previously sued the Trump administration and has warned that democracy in the U.S. is in danger.
The Coalition for Independent Technology Research is the only organization listed at the top of the complaint. It is fiscally sponsored by Aspiration, a nonprofit group that focuses on technology policy.
The Ford Foundation, a noted funder of left-leaning organizations, including immigration and environmental groups, announced that it contributed $400,000 in 2023 to Aspiration for the purpose of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, known for mostly donating to left-leaning causes such as abortion and climate issues, made a $1 million donation to Aspiration in 2024, with $300,000 earmarked for the Coalition for Independent Technology Research.
The Soros family-backed Open Society Foundations contributed $500,000 to Aspiration in 2024, according to Cause IQ, a website that monitors nonprofits.
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