By ADAM GELLER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A coalition of more than 30 privacy and civil rights groups called on U.S. universities Thursday to dismantle campus surveillance and data collection, to protect student protesters and others from government retaliation.

The demands, issued in a letter sent to leaders of 60 major universities and colleges, come as President Donald Trump has pressed schools to crack down on alleged antisemitism and take a harder line on demonstrations.

But the groups said it is essential that universities resist that pressure, including threats to millions of dollars in federal research grants, to preserve the academic freedom and rights to expression of their students, faculty and others.

“We are open-eyed to the financial pressure that all campuses are under,” said Golnaz Fakhimi, legal director for Muslim Advocates, a civil rights group that has counseled students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests and which joined in signing the letter. “But we think this is the moment for all campuses to hunker down” and hold the line against government interference.

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In their letter, the groups called on university leaders to refuse to cooperate with law enforcement agencies seeking to surveil, detain or deport students, and demanded they do more to secure and delete sensitive data. The letter also asked that schools reject restrictions on masks worn by some student protesters to conceal their identities, work to prevent doxxing and dismantle campus surveillance systems.

“Without immediate action, surveillance tools and the data they amass will be used to supercharge the virulent attacks on campus communities,” says the letter, coordinated by the group Fight for the Future. It was signed by 32 groups, including Amnesty International USA, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Several colleges introduced new security measures and protest guidelines following a wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests in spring 2024.

The letter was sent to leaders of 60 schools, including Yale, the University of Michigan and Columbia, which last month agreed in a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220 million to restore federal research money that was canceled in the name of combating antisemitism on campus.

“Surveillance does not make a university safer,” said Will Owen of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, which also signed the letter. “It chills free speech, endangers students who speak out against injustice and it’s really essential for campuses to protect their communities from the threat.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department said Thursday that it’s reviewing the records of more than 55 million foreigners who hold valid U.S. visas for potential revocation or deportable violations of immigration rules.

In a written answer to a question posed by The Associated Press, the department said that all U.S. visa holders are subject to “continuous vetting” with an eye toward any indication that they could be ineligible for the document.

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Should such information be found, the visa will be revoked and, if the visa holder is in the United States, he or she would be subject to deportation.

The department said it was looking for indicators of ineligibility including visa overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity, or providing support to a terrorist organization.

“We review all available information as part of our vetting, including law enforcement or immigration records or any other information that comes to light after visa issuance indicating a potential ineligibility,” the department said.

By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyers for a Spanish-language journalist who has been held in federal immigration detention since June argue in a court filing that the government is retaliating against him for his news coverage and is holding him in violation of his constitutional rights.

Local police in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta, arrested Mario Guevara while he was covering a protest June 14, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of him a few days later. He is being held in an immigration detention center in Folkston, in southeast Georgia, a five-hour drive from his family in suburban Atlanta.

A petition filed in federal court late Wednesday says the government is violating Guevara’s constitutional rights to free speech and due process. It argues that he is being punished for filming police, which is legal, and that he is being subjected to unlawful prior restraint because he’s unable to report while in custody.

The filing asks the court to order his release “so that he may rejoin his family and community and pursue his constitutionally protected journalistic activities.”

The filing names Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and top ICE officials.

“Accusations that Mario Guevara was arrested by ICE because he is a journalist are completely FALSE,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. The Department of Justice declined to comment.

Guevara’s work as a journalist

Guevara, 47, fled his native El Salvador two decades ago because he had suffered violence and harassment there for his work as a journalist. He has continued to work as a journalist since arriving in the Atlanta area. He attracted a large following while working for years for Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language newspaper, before starting a digital news outlet called MG News a year ago.

He frequently arrives on the scene where ICE or other law enforcement agencies are active, often acting on tips from community members. He regularly livestreams what he’s seeing on social media.

McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said Guevara was placed in deportation proceedings because he is in the country illegally.

His lawyers have said he is authorized to work and remain in the U.S. A previous immigration case against him was administratively closed more than a decade ago. He has a pending visa petition and is eligible for a green card, the court filing says.

He was livestreaming video on social media from a “No Kings” rally protesting President Donald Trump’s administration when Doraville police arrested him.

Video from his arrest shows Guevara wearing a bright red shirt under a protective vest with “PRESS” printed across his chest. He could be heard telling a police officer, “I’m a member of the media, officer.” He was standing on a sidewalk with other journalists, with no sign of big crowds or confrontations around him, moments before he was taken away.

Police charged Guevara with unlawful assembly, obstruction of police and being a pedestrian on or along the roadway. His lawyers worked to get him released and he was granted bond in DeKalb County, but ICE had put a hold on him and he was held until they came to pick him up.

DeKalb County Solicitor-General Donna Coleman-Stribling on June 25 dismissed the charges, saying video showed Guevara was “generally in compliance and does not demonstrate the intent to disregard law enforcement directives.”

The sheriff’s office in neighboring Gwinnett County announced June 20, once Guevara was already in ICE custody, that it had secured warrants against him on charges of distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device and reckless driving. Gwinnett County Solicitor-General Lisamarie Bristol announced July 10 that she would not pursue those charges.

An immigration judge last month set a $7,500 bond for Guevara, but that order has been put on hold while the government appeals it.

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Criticism of Guevara’s arrest and detention

His arrest and continued detention have been decried by journalism and press freedom groups, as well as by some public officials in Georgia. His adult children have been vocal in calling for his release.

“Mr. Guevara is a pillar of the Hispanic community in the Atlanta area, and his relationships with the Hispanic community, law enforcement, and civic and religious organizations allow him to serve as a bridge between various stakeholders in his community,” Wednesday’s court filing says.

The government’s arguments during his bond hearing in immigration court and subsequent filings in that case have relied “almost exclusively on Mr. Guevara’s reporting as justification for his continued detention,” the filing says.

The government’s filings detailed several occasions when Guevara had recorded or livestreamed law enforcement activities and posted videos that included undercover agents and their vehicles online, arguing that he’s a danger to the community.

His lawyers counter that livestreaming, recording and publishing videos of law enforcement activity in public — even if those videos identify officers and their vehicles — is protected by the First Amendment. They also note that all charges against Guevara had been dismissed and he hasn’t been convicted of any crimes during his two decades in the U.S.

The petition was filed in Brunswick by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, the University of Georgia law school’s First Amendment Clinic and Guevara’s individual attorneys.

By MARK KENNEDY, Associated Press

Brent Hinds, the former singer-guitarist for the Grammy-winning heavy metal band Mastodon, has died in a motorcycle accident in Atlanta, the band and authorities said. He was 51.

Hinds was killed while riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle late Wednesday night when the driver of a BMW SUV failed to yield while making a turn, according to Atlanta police. Hinds was described as “unresponsive” at the scene.

“We are heartbroken, shocked and still trying to process the loss of this creative force with whom we’ve shared so many triumphs, milestones, and the creation of music that has touched the hearts of so many,” the band said on social media.

Mastodon had three albums rise into the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart and two that topped the Rock Album chart — “Emperor of Sand” in 2017 and “Once More ’round the Sun” in 2014.

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Hinds co-founded Mastodon in 2000 with bassist Troy Sanders, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor. Mastodon’s third studio album, 2006’s “Blood Mountain,” was their first to reach the Top 40, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard 200.

Hinds left the band in March 2025. No reason for the departure was given. The band said they had “mutually decided to part ways,” but comments made by Hinds on Instagram indicated a rocky relationship with the members of his former band.

“We’re deeply proud of and beyond grateful for the music and history we’ve shared and we wish him nothing but success and happiness in his future endeavors,” the band said at the time.

Mastodon — which forged ferocious metal, progressive wizardry and sludge rock tendencies — earned six Grammy Award nominations, winning one in 2017 for best metal performance for “Sultan’s Curse” from the album “Emperor of Sand.”

Rolling Stone magazine listed Mastodon’s 2011 album “The Hunter” among its best off the year, saying the band had “streamlined their molten thrash into a taut thwump that doesn’t pull back one bit on their natural complexity of innate weirdness.”

Hinds was due to tour Europe later this year with Fiend Without a Face, a band that was once a side project during his years with Mastodon.