New York, New York - A Columbia University student sought by federal immigration officials has sued the Trump administration for unlawfully targeting her due to her participation in campus Palestine solidarity protests.

The lawsuit – filed Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York – challenges the government's "shocking overreach" in seeking to deport 21-year-old Yunseo Chung, a lawful permanent resident who has lived in the US since she was seven years old.

"The government's actions are an unprecedented and unjustifiable assault on First Amendment and other rights, one that cannot stand basic legal scrutiny," the complaint reads.

"Simply put, immigration enforcement – here, immigration detention and threatened deportation – may not be used as a tool to punish noncitizen speakers who express political views disfavored by the current administration."

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Chung had participated in several on-campus demonstrations related to Israel's assault on the Palestinian people as well as the university's harsh treatment of student protesters, but she was not a leader in the movement nor had she made any public statements to the press.

"She was, rather, one of a large group of college students raising, expressing, and discussing shared concerns," the suit notes.

The Trump administration has sought to target Chung, whose parents immigrated to the US from South Korea when she was a child, as part of its escalated crackdown on the campus Palestine solidarity movement.

The Columbia junior was arrested on March 5 of this year while joining a sit-in against the university administration's excessive punishment of student protesters, the suit says.

Just days later, on March 8, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer signed an administrative arrest warrant against her before officers showed up at her parents' home the next day.

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On March 10, a federal law enforcement official told Chung's lawyer that her lawful permanent resident status was being "revoked." Federal immigration agents searched two Columbia-owned residences, including Chung's dorm, on March 13.

"ICE's shocking actions against Ms. Chung form part of a larger pattern of attempted U.S. government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech," argues the complaint.

"The government's repression has focused specifically on university students who speak out in solidarity with Palestinians and who are critical of the Israeli government's ongoing military campaign in Gaza or the pro-Israeli policies of the U.S. government and other U.S. institutions."

The complaint states that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had ordered Chung's deportation, claiming her presence risks adverse consequences to US foreign policy.

The Trump administration cited the same rationale in arresting Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia graduate currently being held in ICE detention in Louisiana, as well as Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown University whose wife is Palestinian American.

Judges have blocked both men's deportations as cases challenging their detentions play out.

Meanwhile, Columbia has caved to Trump's demands to crack down even harder on student protesters after the president announced $400 million in federal funding cuts to the university.

Trump earlier this month described Khalil's detention as "the first arrest of many to come," adding, "We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country – never to return again."

United Nations experts have condemned the student arrests: "These actions are disproportionate, unnecessary, and discriminatory and will only lead to more trauma and polarization negatively impacting the learning environment within university campuses."

"These actions create a chilling effect on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association," they added.