Mahmoud Khalil, the former Palestinian graduate student who advocated for a "student intifada" at Columbia and handed out pro-Hamas flyers around campus, is sitting in a Louisiana detention center waiting for the legal fight over his deportation to be resolved.
For partisans on both sides, the case is a no-brainer.
“The administration’s pattern of targeting the rights of students and immigrants to speak against injustice undermines democracy and makes everyone less safe,” reads a letter calling for the immediate release of Khalil, signed by two dozen New York Democratic and Socialist Party of America politicians. The letter called for Khalil's return to New York and his supervised release.
“It's important in this moment for New York state and city legislators to be unequivocal about our support for the immigrant community and for the right of anyone to be able to exercise their free speech rights,” said Assembly Member Claire Valdez, a DSA-backed state legislator who spearheaded the letter campaign.
On the other side is the fact that Khalil was advocating for terrorism and made Jewish students at Columbia fear for their safety.
"This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda flyers with the logo of Hamas," White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.
On Wednesday, Khalil's defense attorneys and government lawyers will appear before U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, and each will make their case. Thanks to the First Amendment, the government has a very high bar it must clear to deport the pro-Hamas Khalil. It's a close call for Furman, and the ruling will be appealed no matter what he decides.
Did Khalil advocate for violence? Was he promoting insurrection? Those are criminal acts, and Khalail has not been charged with a crime. The issue to be decided is whether or not the government can make a strong enough case to override First Amendment protections and the legal rights of a green card holder to deport Khalil.
“Because Mahmoud has been so prominent, active and outspoken in support of Palestinian rights, he’s been marked as a target,” said one of his lawyers, Ramzi Kassem, a co-director of CLEAR, a legal clinic at the City University of New York. “What’s being done to him is unconstitutional, it is unlawful, and we intend to do everything in our power to ensure the Trump administration will not get away with it in court.”
The Constitution is not a suicide pact. Khalil was a "target" because he deliberately and consciously made himself one. He wasn't walking around minding his own business when ICE agents picked him up.
Claiming he was being arrested solely because of what he was saying is incredibly misleading and disingenuous. Khalil promoted "Palestinian rights" by supporting a baby-killing terrorist group. His support for Hamas means that he supports the genocide of the Jewish people, the harassment of Jews on Columbia's campus, and his attempt to interfere with the free speech of others, all of which marks him as an "undesirable alien," and he should be deported.
Leavitt said, “Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges. And he took advantage of that opportunity, of that privilege by siding with terrorists.”
Judge Furman has the power to order Mr. Khalil’s release, but it is unclear whether he might do so as early as the conference, on Wednesday morning at 11:30. The conference, however, could provide more information about the circumstances that led to the arrest and the government’s justification for Mr. Khalil’s continuing detention.
The future of Mr. Khalil’s immigration status will be decided in a separate process. That matter will be presided over by an immigration judge, who could determine whether to revoke Mr. Khalil’s green card.
There's nothing easy about this case. Any attempt by the government to create even the appearance of censoring speech of any kind should be done with the utmost care.
Khalil supports a rancid, racist, and despotic cause. He is no hero. The left's attempt to make him a poster child for Donald Trump's "oppression" is silly and stupid. Politically, Trump has already won.
The attacks on free speech in recent years have made safeguarding the First Amendment a priority. Khalil should be deported based on the law, not because of his disagreeable speech.
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