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Earlier this month,<\/span> while hunting for Columbia University students to deport over their ties to Gaza protests, the Trump administration convinced a federal judge to sign off on search warrants for two students\u2019 dorm rooms \u2014 then raided the residences with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.<\/p>\n As details about the warrants have emerged, however, so have allegations that federal agents misled the court and secured the warrants under \u201cfalse pretenses,\u201d as one of the students whose room was searched, Yunseo Chung, claimed in a lawsuit challenging her deportation.<\/p>\n The warrants were predicated on probable cause that Columbia was \u201charboring\u201d students who were in the country illegally, court filings indicate. Chung, however, is a lawful permanent resident, notwithstanding the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to deport her based on her arrest and citation at a Gaza sit-in. She has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe basis for this entire operation is constitutionally invalid.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that they went before a federal magistrate judge and said, \u2018We have to search Ms. Chung\u2019s residence for evidence of Columbia harboring her\u2019 \u2014 that shows they\u2019re willing to lie to a judge,\u201d said Nathan Yaffe, an immigration attorney. <\/p>\n Yaffe represents both Chung and the other Columbia student who was targeted by the search warrants, Ranjani Srinivasan, who left the country<\/a> in mid-March.<\/p>\n Most of the materials relating to the search warrants remain under seal in federal court, and Columbia declined to comment on them, citing student privacy protections. ICE did not respond to The Intercept\u2019s questions about the warrants.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the government falsified information to get the warrant, that is its own bundle of serious problems,\u201d said Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney at Human Rights First who also represents Chung. \u201cBut even if not, the basis for this entire operation is constitutionally invalid.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The search warrants served on Columbia first became public through a late-night statement from the university on March 13, just five days after the jarring arrest<\/a> of Mahmoud Khalil<\/a> in the lobby of his Columbia apartment building. The school did not include the targeted students\u2019 names, the specific buildings, or the government\u2019s legal justification for searching them.<\/p>\n \u201cI am writing heartbroken to inform you that we had federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in two University residences tonight,\u201d Columbia interim president Katrina Armstrong wrote in her statement<\/a>. Armstrong emphasized that university protocol \u201crequires that law enforcement have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas\u201d \u2014 which ICE satisfied by serving warrants signed by a federal magistrate judge.<\/p>\n \u201cThe University is obligated to comply with the law,\u201d Armstrong wrote. \u201cNo one was arrested or detained. No items were removed, and no further action was taken.\u201d<\/p>\n The next day, a top Justice Department official bragged about the unsuccessful raid in a speech. His remarks offered the first clues about the story the Trump administration told the federal judge who signed the warrants.<\/p>\n \u201cJust last night we worked with the Department of Homeland Security to execute search warrants from an investigation into Columbia University for harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus,\u201d said<\/a> Todd Blanche, the U.S. deputy attorney general. Blanche offered no evidence in his speech to support the allegation against the university.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\u201cHarboring and Concealing\u201d?<\/h2>\n