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Who is Mahmoud Khalil?
Mahmoud Khalil is a prominent Palestinian activist who recently completed his graduate studies at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. During his studies, he became a leader in the campus protests against the war in Gaza, and served as a negotiator between administration officials and protesters who were demanding the university divest from Israel. He is a green card holder – meaning, a permanent US resident – and is married to a US citizen who is expecting a baby next month.
What happened to him?
He was arrested on Saturday. Pro-Israel activists had been publicly calling on the Trump administration to deport Khalil, and the day before his arrest he was worried enough by the harassment that h asked the university for help. “I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that Ice or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support, and I urge you to intervene and provide the necessary protections to prevent further harm,” he wrote to Columbia’s interim president. Khalil’s wife said the university did not respond.
On Saturday night, as Khalil and his wife were returning from dinner, an ICE officer followed them into their building in New York City, described himself as being with the police, and told Khalil to come with him, according to Khalil’s wife. Agents told Khalil’s lawyer over the phone that they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his student visa. When informed he had a green card, the ICE agents said that, too, had been revoked.
They handcuffed Khalil and bundled him into an unmarked car, according to his wife. She said they did not show a warrant. “It felt like a scene from a movie I never signed up to watch,” she said in a statement.
Khalil was first sent to New Jersey before being transferred to a facility in Louisiana.
Why was he arrested?
On social media, Donald Trump declared that the arrest was part of his promised campaign to deport international students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. The administration broadly perceives pro-Palestinian protesters to be antisemitic Hamas sympathizers. Trump has already promised that Khalil’s was the “first arrest of many to come”.
Doesn’t a green card protect you from being deported?
Usually, yes. A green card is considered sacrosanct – the holy grail for immigrants seeking the right to live and work in America permanently. Typically, green card holders can only be stripped of their status if they have been convicted of a crime – and Khalil has not been accused of one.
The Trump administration, however, is relying on a rarely used provision of US immigration law to try to deport him. A charging document addressed to Khalil said that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, “has reasonable ground to believe that your presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.
The New York Times recently reported that the state department’s rationale is that US foreign policy to combat antisemitism around the world will be adversely affected by Khalil’s continued presence in the US.
Why is this such a big deal?
Khalil’s arrest has raised alarm that the Trump administration is taking a hammer to the bedrock American principle of free speech. “This seems like one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threat to first amendment freedoms in 50 years,” said Brian Hauss, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. “It’s a direct attempt to punish speech because of the viewpoint it espouses.”
What’s more, the “adverse foreign policy consequences” argument for deporting Khalil is vague enough that it could in theory extend not just to any international student who participated in the Gaza protests, but just about any non-citizen protesting on behalf of the Palestinians – or, indeed, any other issue the government declares to be a “foreign policy” aim. The legal journal Just Security points out: “If the government has an objective to promote fossil fuel use across the globe, for example, then the secretary of state could deem climate science advocates – or even non-citizens who own green technology firms – deportable on the ground that their residency ‘undermines the policy objective’ of promoting fossil fuels.”
What happens next?
Khalil is being represented by a number of prominent civil rights groups who are challenging both his detention and the government’s intention to deport him. They’re also trying to get him transferred from Louisiana, where he’s currently being held, back to New York.
The state department can’t just unilaterally revoke a green card. Khalil has due process rights and his immigration case will be heard by an immigration judge. His lawyers are certain to point out the problems with the provision Rubio is relying on – previously found by one court to be unconstitutional – and argue that he is being punished for speech protected under the first amendment.
