The arrest of a Columbia College graduate marks a major escalation in President Trump’s immigration crackdown, with a lawful everlasting resident who has not been charged with any crime now being held in U.S. custody.
The Trump administration is making clear that inexperienced card holder Mahmoud Khalil, who has a courtroom look set for Wednesday, is being focused over his participation in pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations.
Trump mentioned Monday that Khalil can be the primary of many overseas college students deported as “terrorist sympathizers.”
Authorized specialists say the intention is apparent: to frighten different would-be activists and to sit back political protests. In addition they say Khalil’s detention poses severe constitutional issues.
“Particularly for green card holders in the United States, they’re entitled to almost the full scope of First Amendment rights that U.S. citizens are as well. And so, taking action to strip someone of a green card or deport them from this country based solely on their political speech or participation in political protests would almost certainly be unconstitutional,” mentioned Carolina DeCell, a senior employees legal professional for the Knight First Modification Institute at Columbia.
“I would say this appears to be part of a broader effort to chill the speech of political opponents, or people with whom this administration disagrees on political issues, and it sets a really terrible precedent,” DeCell added.
The case follows a promise Trump made on the marketing campaign path that he would arrest and deport overseas college students who participated within the pro-Palestinian encampments final yr.
The encampments led to greater than 2,000 arrests throughout the nation, with some faculties transferring lessons on-line or canceling commencement ceremonies.
The president and a few of his allies made no distinction between these supporting the Palestinian trigger and people backing Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group.
“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,” Trump wrote on social media.
However specialists say the First Modification applies to all, even when there may be help for terrorist teams concerned. On the whole, it’s unlawful to offer such teams materials help, equivalent to money, however a vocal settlement with their views, so long as there is no such thing as a name to unlawful motion, remains to be permissible.
The small print of the administration’s case towards Khalil stay unclear, and the Basis for People Rights and Expression (FIRE) has written a letter to the Trump administration demanding to know the trigger for his arrest.
“We’re concerned in the absence of information justifying the arrest. One can infer that he’s been arrested because of his criticism of the United States’s policy toward the conflict in Gaza, and his criticism of the Israeli government, and the First Amendment forbids the government from punishing people for their political viewpoints,” mentioned Will Creeley, authorized director for FIRE.
“If we had some kind of evidence of lawbreaking — let’s say, engaging in violence, engaging in destruction of property, some kind of criminal activity, then Mr. Khalil would still be entitled to due process. … The lack of transparency, and the statements from the administration today, which focus on Mr. Khalil’s political views, are chilling,” Creeley mentioned.
Whereas the Trump administration is claiming they will deport even immigrants who’re within the nation legally, solely an immigration decide can revoke somebody’s inexperienced card standing.
Many overseas college students do not need a inexperienced card and are within the U.S. on a scholar visa, which may be canceled for extra causes, equivalent to felony issues, extended absence from college, giving incorrect info or altering faculties with out permission.
Amy Greer, Khalil’s legal professional, advised The Hill that when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) got here to arrest him Saturday, they claimed his scholar visa was revoked, and even after he knowledgeable the officers of his inexperienced card standing, they nonetheless arrested him.
Greer mentioned the ICE brokers additionally threatened Khalil’s spouse, who’s eight months pregnant and a U.S. citizen.
“We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud’s rights in court, and will continue our efforts to right this terrible and inexcusable — and calculated — wrong committed against him. ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” she mentioned.
Khalil was reportedly moved to a detention middle in Louisiana, however Monday, a federal district decide blocked any additional efforts to deport him, scheduling a listening to within the case for Wednesday morning.
“To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise,” U.S. District Decide Jesse M. Furman mentioned in his order.
In line with draft memos written by ICE in the course of the first Trump administration and obtained by the Knight First Modification Institute, eradicating a overseas nationwide based mostly on speech can be very tough, even in circumstances of supporting terrorist teams.
The draft ICE memo mentioned for nonresident aliens, a class that features most scholar visa holders, utilizing the Immigration and Nationality Act “is most likely to be defensible in circumstances where a nonresident aliens has endorsed or supported not terrorist activity of any kind, but terrorist activities that can reasonably be characterized as posing a threat to the national security of the United States or the security of its nationals.”
The Trump administration will not be the one one taking hearth for the arrest.
Columbia College has advised college students it isn’t permitting ICE into nonpublic components of campus with out a judicial warrant however will “continue to follow the law.”
The college is clearly set to be a chief goal for the Trump administration, which has canceled some $400 million in federal contracts and grants to it on account of its alleged inaction towards antisemitism on campus.
“It’s not just the Trump administration here that’s at fault. There’s also Columbia, who hasn’t yet condemned the arrest or the arbitrary detention of Mahmoud. They have yet to call for him to be released — not that I’ve seen, publicly,” mentioned Sabiya Ahamed, employees legal professional at Palestine Authorized.
“And I think if the university is going to make it clear that it’s there to protect students against anti-Palestinian oppression,” Ahamed added, then directors want to talk out and say they’re “not going to collaborate or cooperate with ICE in any type of approach.”
