Who is Mahmoud Khalil?
Mahmoud Khalil is a prominent Palestinian activist who recently completed his graduate studies at Columbia University’s Faculty of International Public Relations. During his research, he became the leader of the campus’ protests against the war in Gaza and served as a negotiator between administrators and protesters who had requested that the university be sold from Israel. He is a green card holder, meaning he is a permanent US resident and is married to a US citizen who is hoping for a baby next month.
What happened to him?
He was arrested on Saturday. Israeli activists have publicly called on the Trump administration to deport Halil. The day before his arrest, he was worried enough about the harassment that he had asked the university for help. “I couldn’t sleep. I’m afraid that the ice or dangerous individual might come to my house. I wrote a letter to the interim president of Colombia. Halil’s wife said the university didn’t respond.
On Saturday night, when Halil and his wife returned from dinner, an immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) officer chased them into a New York City building, explaining himself to be with police, telling Khalil to come with him, according to Halil’s wife. The agent told Halil’s attorney over the phone that he was acting under a State Department order to revoke his student visa. When informed that he had a green card, the ice agent also said it had been cancelled.
According to his wife, they handcuffed Halil and bundled him into an unmarked car. She said they didn’t show the warrant. “It felt like a scene from a movie I’ve never signed up to see,” she said in a statement.
Halil was first sent to New Jersey and then moved to a Louisiana facility.
Why was he arrested?
On social media, Donald Trump declared the arrest was part of his promised campaign to send international students who participated in the pro-Palestinian protests. The administration widely recognizes pro-Palestinian protesters as sympathizers of the anti-Semitic Hamas. Trump has already promised that Halil will be “many first arrests to come.”
Why not use a green card to prevent you from being deported?
Usually, yes. Green cards are considered sacred. This is the holy grail for immigrants seeking the right to live and work in America. Typically, green card holders can only strip them of status if they are convicted of a crime. Halil has not been accused alone.
However, the Trump administration relies on rarely used provisions of US immigration law to try to deport him. According to a charging document addressed to Khalil, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “There is a reasonable basis for believing that your presence or activity in the United States will have a potentially serious and unfavorable diplomatic impact on the United States.”
The New York Times recently reported that the State Department’s rationale is that US foreign policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world will be negatively affected by the ongoing presence of Halil in the United States.
Why is this so big?
Halil’s arrest raised the warning that the Trump administration is hammering American principles of free speech on the bedrock. “This seems like one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threat to First Amendment liberty in 50 years,” said Brian House, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s a direct attempt to punish a speech because of the perspective it supports.”
Furthermore, the debate on the “unfavorable foreign policy outcome” to deport Halil is so vague that it could theoretically extend to international students who participated in the Gaza protests, as well as protesters who are protesting on behalf of the Palestinians. The legal magazine states, “If governments have the purpose of promoting the use of fossil fuels around the world, the Secretary of State can see climate science advocates, or even non-citizens who own green technology companies, as deporting residencies on the grounds that they undermine their policy goals of promoting fossil fuels.”
What happens next?
Halil is represented by many prominent civil rights groups who challenge both his detention and the government’s intentions to deport him. They are also trying to transfer him from Louisiana. He is now back in New York, where he is in custody.
The State Department cannot unilaterally cancel a green card. Halil has the right to a legitimate process and his immigration case is heard by an immigration judge. His lawyers have ensured that Rubio points to the issue of provisions previously discovered to be unconstitutional by a previous court, and he argues that he is being punished for a speech protected under the First Amendment.
