Wednesday, 2 April
Four Berlin residents threatened with deportation on political grounds
The Berlin Senate has issued deportation orders to four local residents, each of whom have been targeted by authorities following their involvement in pro-Palestine actions. The orders are set to take effect in less than a month. None of the four have been convicted of any crime.
This news, first reported in The Intercept, is all the more surprising since three of the activists slated for deportation come from EU countries. Two of them—Shane O’Brien and Roberta Murray—are citizens of Ireland, while another, Kasia Wlaszczyk, is a Polish national. The fourth, Cooper Longbottom, is a US citizen. Wlaszczyk and Longbottom both identify as trans.
Apparently, under German migration law, authorities do not require a criminal conviction to issue a deportation order. In these cases, the Berlin Senate’s justification for expelling each of them stems from their involvement in pro-Palestine actions: a mass sit-in at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, a roadblock, and the late-2024 occupation of a building at Free University. The accusations against these protesters appear relatively minor at first glance: two are accused of calling a police officer a fascist, three of chanting the banned slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and all of them of chanting what have been deemed as antisemitic or anti-Israeli slogans, although police reports do not specify what these contained.
Remarkably, according to The Intercept, there appear to have been objections about an official overreach from within the Berlin Senate. One employee from the immigration agency is said to have expressed doubt about the legal basis for revoking freedom of movement from the EU citizens, only to have their concerns overruled.
Lawyers for each of the four have filed a formal appeal challenging the legality of the deportation orders.
