An Indian graduate student with a student visa who taught at Georgetown University.
He is a professor at Brown University’s School of Medicine and is a valid visa and is from Lebanon.
A recent graduate of Columbia University and a pro-Palestinian activist with a green card who gave birth to a baby with his wife, a US citizen.
All three scholars have been targeted by the Trump administration for deportation this month, despite the fact that they have papers that allow them all to live and work in the United States
In both cases, the Department of Homeland Security justified its decision to drive them out of the country, dating back to the Cold War, by citing ambiguous provisions in the immigration law that grant the Secretary of State the authority to expel the person.
“The Secretary of State has determined that your presence or activity in the United States will have serious foreign policy implications on the United States,” he reads documents and cites regulations in one of the deportations cases.
When Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1952, its purpose was to keep communists out of America.
Now, the provisions are another legal weapon the Trump administration is deploying to fulfill its mission to deport millions of immigrants, experts said.
And it’s a potentially powerful weapon, and Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at UC Davis, wrote in a recent article on the rights of green cardholders who tried to answer the question of whether the Trump administration could legally expel Halil.
“Legal permanent residents may not be criminally charged with political speeches or activities, but what they say or write can have a significant impact on their ability to remain in the United States if the government deems a security risk,” Chin wrote.
Until now, homeland security authorities have primarily targeted legions of hopeless immigrants who have crossed the US-Mexico border and claimed exile but have no solid legal status in the US.
However, the deportation of Dr. Lasha Alawyer from Brown University to Lebanon and detention of Badal Khan Sri at Georgetown University and Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University show that the Trump administration also has on its crosshairs.
“There’s no doubt this is an attempt by Trump and his administration to chill the speeches of scholars, especially those who are not American citizens,” Chin told NBC News. “This is a new era.”
That seems to be the case with Halil, 30-year-old Halil. A Palestinian Algerian citizen, Halil is a legal permanent resident of the United States, but he became the target of the Trump administration last year when he became the unmasked face of a pro-Palestinian student demonstration that struck Colombia.
Immigration agents arrested Khalil in New York City on March 8th in front of his wife Noor Abdallah and took him briefly to a New Jersey detention center before moving him to a Louisiana facility. He has not been charged with a crime. Homeland Security authorities said he was targeted because they “lead activities along Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
On Monday, a federal judge banned the government from deporting Halil and ordered his case to be moved to New Jersey.
In a letter he dictated to his family over the phone, Halil said he was a “political prisoner” “targeted” to defend the Palestinian cause. At least one other student at Ivy League School was taken into custody by immigration officers following the protest.
Suri, believed to be 41, was taken into custody by a masked DHS agent on Monday as he was back at his Virginia home, which he shares with his wife, Mapeze Saleja and three children. The detention was first reported by Politico.
Georgetown said it was not aware that Suri was involved in “unlawful conduct,” and neither the DHS nor the State Department responded to NBC questions about why Suri was detained.
However, DHS Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded to the political talk, saying in X that Suri “actively spread Hamas propaganda and promotes anti-Semitism on social media.”
McLaughlin also argued that “Sleepy Sli has close ties with known or suspected terrorists, a senior adviser to Hamas.”
“He was simply commenting on the Israeli and the Palestinian War. Many people have an opinion on it, as many people do in this country. He has the right to talk about political change,” said Sophia Greg, a lawyer at the ACLU in Virginia, who represents Suri. “There was no allegation that he had ever proposed violence.”
Greg also said the issue was not “a family-like relationship with someone,” but instead “he is targeted by his political speech, which is unacceptable in this country.”
The pickpocket was being held at the detention center in Alexandria, Louisiana as of Wednesday. His lawyers asked federal court on Thursday to force the government to return him to Virginia, and he was rounded up based on his speech on Palestinian rights, suggesting that it violated due process clauses and the initial amendments to the US Constitution.
“Dr. Suri’s experience is shocking and dishonorable,” said Hassan Ahmad, Suri’s immigration lawyer. “Because the current administration dislikes their views, everyone should be worried that government agents who hid government agents can erase someone from their homes and their families.”
The judge ordered the pickpocket to not be deported “unless limited” until the court changes its position.
Alawie, a 34-year-old Lebanese citizen with a valid H-1B visa, was sent back to his hometown after telling customs agents at Boston Logan International Airport that he attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrala, the leader of Iranbach Hezbollah, the DHS said Monday.
When asked if she supported Nasrara, Alawie said she was “from a religious perspective” as a Shiite Muslim.
“Visas are privileges, not rights. Praise and support terrorists who kill Americans is the basis for the denied issuance of visas,” the agency later replied.
If Alawye attended Nasrara’s funeral, she had a lot of companies. Tens of thousands gathered at Beirut’s 48,000 Kamille Chamon Sports City Stadium.
However, Alawie, a kidney and transplant expert who has been in the United States since 2018, was deported despite an order from the Massachusetts District Court, despite an order that “they should not be excluded from the state without notice “give the court time to consider the matter.”
“We are not going to stop fighting to see her patients to get her back to the US, and we are going to make sure the government follows the rule of law,” Arawie immigration lawyer Stephanie Marzouk told reporters Monday.
Rep. Gabe Amo said his office has been working from Friday to assess the facts surrounding Dr. Alawieh, including clear violations of the federal judge’s orders.
Meanwhile, Alawie’s colleague from Brown’s kidneys in East Providence, Rhode Island, was about to double the people he worked with in a DHS statement.
“She’s such a nice guy,” said Dr. George Baylis.
