I'm Ayesha Roscoe and you're listening to the Sunday Story where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story.
In a recent address to Congress, President Trump made a big claim about free speech.
I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America.
It's back.
Days later, immigration agents arrested Mahmood Khalil,
a legal permanent resident and Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University for his participation in campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza.
More international students who are here legally have been arrested since and face the possibility of deportation.
Some First Amendment experts have observed these detentions with concern.
Insofar as the government is going after this person, Khalil,
because of ideas that he expressed, we have a direct collision with the First Amendment.
My colleague, Morning Edition co-host Leila Fado,
wanted to take a closer look at how the right to free speech might be changing for different people in the U.S.
right now.
She wanted to hear from people who feel more freedom to speak at this moment.
I don't see that conservatives are just in general much more willing to speak their mind.
As well as those who feel they're being forced into silence.
They just sort of shut down the conversation by saying, I'm putting you on a list.
It's somewhat intimidating.
This past week, Leila and her team at Morning Edition aired a series of conversations with educators and students,
scientists and advocacy groups and others.