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Look, irrespective of how one feels about pro-Palestinian protests or the Palestinian/Israeli battle typically, if the curious case of Columbia College graduate Mahmoud Khalil doesn’t trigger you concern over the way forward for the constitutionally protected First Modification, you merely aren’t paying consideration.
Over Saturday evening, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers confirmed up at Khalil’s house at a Columbia College-owned house complicated, the place they arrested him after threatening to arrest his eight-month pregnant spouse, his lawyer, Amy Greer, informed the Related Press. Khalil has but to be charged with against the law and there don’t appear to be any reported particulars concerning what legal guidelines he might need damaged. What we’ve heard advert nauseam, nonetheless, are imprecise allegations leveled by President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and different MAGA officers — who’ve made core political methods out of propaganda offered with no proof — that Khalil, a inexperienced card-holding everlasting resident of america, is a “Hamas supporter” who organized an “unauthorized marching occasion” in assist of the terrorist group, and performed a “substantial position” within the circulation of social media posts criticizing Zionism.
“I’ve round 13 allegations towards me, most of them are social media posts that I had nothing to do with,” Khalil informed AP final week.
“They only wish to present Congress and right-wing politicians that they’re doing one thing, whatever the stakes for college students,” he added. “It’s primarily an workplace to relax pro-Palestine speech.”
Now, Trump and his minions within the State Division are threatening Mahmoud Khalil with deportation and the revocation of his citizenship. Even when one believes Khalil is a “Hamas supporter” — a label white MAGA-fied conservatives have typically branded all pro-Palestinian protesters with — one must admit that transferring to deport a U.S. citizen who has not but been formally charged with against the law based mostly on imprecise, unproven allegations is past placing the cart earlier than the horse.
From AP:
Greer stated she spoke by telephone with one of many ICE brokers in the course of the arrest, who stated they have been performing on State Division orders to revoke Khalil’s pupil visa. Knowledgeable by the lawyer that Khalil was in america as a everlasting resident with a inexperienced card, the agent stated they have been revoking that as a substitute, in response to the lawyer.
“We now have not been capable of get any extra particulars about why he’s being detained,” Greer informed the AP. “This can be a clear escalation. The administration is following via on its threats.”
A Columbia College spokesperson stated legislation enforcement brokers should produce a warrant earlier than getting into college property, however declined to say if the college had acquired one forward of Khalil’s arrest. The spokesperson declined to touch upon Khalil’s detention.
In a message shared on X Sunday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the administration “can be revoking the visas and/or inexperienced playing cards of Hamas supporters in America to allow them to be deported.”
The Division of Homeland Safety can provoke deportation proceedings towards inexperienced card holders for a broad vary of alleged felony exercise, together with supporting a terror group. However the detention of a authorized everlasting resident who has not been charged with against the law marked a rare transfer with an unsure authorized basis, in response to immigration specialists.
“This has the looks of a retaliatory motion towards somebody who expressed an opinion the Trump administration didn’t like,” stated Camille Mackler, founding father of Immigrant ARC, a coalition of authorized service suppliers in New York.
Final week, we reported that Trump — the president who pardoned or commuted the sentences of greater than 1500 Jan. 6 Capitol rioters who acted on Trump’s personal totally debunked election fraud propaganda — appeared to generalize all pro-Palestinian protests on school campuses as “unlawful protests,” and threatened that “all Federal Funding will STOP for any School, College, or College that permits” such protests with out bothering to elaborate on what precisely made them “unlawful.” Trump additionally claimed “American college students can be completely expelled or, relying on the crime, arrested,” as if he would have the authority to expel any pupil from any college. His use of “relying on the crime” can also be fascinating when, to date, the one arrest made is of a former pupil who, once more, has not been charged with something but.
However although we nonetheless don’t actually have any unambiguous concept why Mahmoud Khalil was arrested within the first place, Trump is already out right here beating his chest and declaring that his arrest is however one “of many to return.”
“We all know there are extra college students at Columbia and different Universities throughout the nation who’ve engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American exercise,” Trump wrote in a social media submit. “We are going to discover, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our nation — by no means to return once more.”
In the meantime, on Monday, a federal choose in New York Metropolis ordered that Khalil not be deported whereas the court docket thought of a authorized problem introduced by his legal professionals. A listening to on the matter is scheduled for Wednesday.
AP famous that “Federal immigration authorities additionally visited a second worldwide pupil at Columbia on Friday night and tried to take her into custody however weren’t allowed to enter the house, in response to a union representing the scholar.”
You actually can’t name your self a patriot or an advocate for the U.S. Structure in case your MAGA allegiance has you turning a wilfully blind eye when Trump begins flirting with fascism like this. Earlier than a sitting president and his administration’s prime authorities begin declaring that protesters are terrorists and that they are going to be arrested and deported — they need to be prepared and capable of title an individual’s crime.
And, suffice it to say, if the rights of Khalil and different activists can so simply be revoked, so can yours, whoever you might be.