ICE Detention Of Khalil Is 'Unprecedented, Illegal' Attack On Free Speech
On Monday, President Donald Trump bragged about taking steps to deport Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, saying the Columbia University graduate student who organized anti-Israel protests last year is "the first arrest of many to come."
"We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country—never to return again. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply. Thank you!"
Khalil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Saturday, who said they were taking him into custody because the State Department had revoked his student visa. However, Khalil is a legal permanent resident with a green card who had not been charged with any crimes before his arrest.
After his arrest, the Department of Homeland Security said that Khalil led “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization” and that he will now be deported because that violates an executive order Trump signed on January 30 that says the Trump administration will “deport Hamas sympathizers and revoke student visas.”
“We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a post on X.
In an appearance on Fox Business on Monday, Trump border czar Tom Homan defended Khalil’s deportation, and said the United States can deport legal permanent residents.
"Absolutely we can," Homan said. "Did he violate the terms of his visa? Did he violate the terms of his residency here? Committing crimes, attacking Israeli students, locking down buildings, destroying property, absolutely. Any resident alien who commits a crime is eligible for deportation."
But Khalil wasn’t arrested for any of those aforementioned crimes.
Arresting and deporting someone over speech that does not align with the administration’s policies is a terrifying slippery slope. Today it’s Palestinian activists, but next it could be anyone who criticizes Trump or Republicans.
“This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American,” the American Civil Liberties Union, which defends the right to free speech in the United States, said in a statement on Monday. “The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes. To be clear: The First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate. The government must immediately return Mr. Khalil to New York, release him back to his family, and reverse course on this discriminatory policy.”
Even anti-immigration right-wing activists have said they take issue with Khalil's arrest and deportation for that reason.
"There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport, but, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?" far-right commentator Ann Coulter wrote in a post on X.
Ultimately, the move is one of many free speech crackdowns Trump and the Republican Party have taken since he was sworn in on January 20.
Trump has targeted law firms who have either defended Democratic officials or sued Trump.
On Thursday, he signed an executive order that revoked security clearances of lawyers at the law firm Perkins Coie and barred them from federal government buildings “when such access would threaten the national security of or otherwise be inconsistent with the interests of the United States.” In the order, Trump attacked Perkins Coie for “representing failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton,” and for defending Fusion GPS which he said “manufactured a false ‘dossier’ designed to steal an election.”
“This is dangerous as hell,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said to the Wall Street Journal of Trump’s attacks on law firms. “If you defend other people’s rights, even if it’s your job, the president of the United States will retaliate against you.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) received a letter from the Department of Justice in February demanding he “clarify” comments he made calling co-President Elon Musk a "dick."
“This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk—an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a “dick”—and government staff who work for him. Their concerns have led to this inquiry,” Ed Martin, interim United States attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote in the letter.
“So if you criticize Elon Musk, Trump’s DOJ will send you this letter,” Garcia wrote on Bluesky. “Members of Congress must have the right to forcefully oppose the Trump Administration. I will not be silenced.”
Martin also threatened Georgetown University Law School, saying that if the school continues to teach classes related to diversity, equity, and inclusion that his office would not hire students from the school.
And House Republicans censured Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green for saying during Trump's joint address to Congress on March 4 that Trump had "no mandate" to cut Medicaid. Republicans are also threatening to remove Green from his House committee assignments over his protest.
With all these moves, fascism is no longer a threat: It’s here, and it’s terrifying.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
