The university campus collided with campus on the Israeli war in Gaza with the debate of immigration in the United States.
The Trump administration’s framing for its detention of a Palestinian student activist as a defense against the high anti -Semitism is a step in fact, a new round of freedom of war of war.
Nearly a week after Immigration officials were arrested, Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who lives in New York, is still any official charges against him outside the Immigration Court. President Donald Trump The name Palestinian activist “a foreign student supporting foreigners” and “the first arrest of many in the future.”
Why did we write this
The Trump administration appears to be in unknown legal waters as it seeks to identify or deport people who see it as threats. Some see Mahmoud Khalil’s case as part of the opposition campaign.
Immigrant defenders and many legal experts have criticized the arrest of Mr. Khalil as an unconstitutional violation of freedom of expression. They also warn of the effect of the potential tactic to dice on both other immigrants and Americans.
In addition to the issue of civil freedoms, the apparent rising role of the Foreign Minister. The provision of a migration law allows the office a specific deportation authority, which the Trump administration calls now, according to a tightly tight document Metni From the Washington Post.
Immigration experts say the country may enter unknown legal water as the government seeks to obtain new ways to identify and deport people who consider threats to US foreign policy.
“Like many things that this administration is doing, it pushes the law to the maximum,” says Gabriel Chen, a migration law at the University of California, Davis College of Law. He added, “It is not customary, at least since the era of Makarthy, an attempt to deport migrants to” controversial political activity. “
Where and when the last tensions begin
On October 7, 2023, an attack led by Hamas was killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages. Israel has a campaign and a floor that killed at least 4,800 people, according to the local health authority. The protests against the war protested against colleges throughout the United States, including the University of Colombia in New York. The disguised demonstrators occupied parts of the campus and disrupt the classes.
In the following months, Mr. Trump began discussing the re -establishment of students on the campaign trail and then put the theater on the first day of his new administration, January 20, 2025. On that day, he signed on Executive order The outsourcing of American citizens of immigrants who “intend to commit terrorist attacks, threatening our national security and adopting a hateful ideology.” Also in January, it is ReaffirmAnd, which was presented during his first term, to “fighting anti-Semitism strongly”-including the prosecution and deportation.
Mr. Khalil is a Palestinian from Syria, and he is a student of a graduate student in Colombia recently with a green card, also known as a permanent resident card. This means that he has been allowed to live and work in the United States with a path to citizenship. Unlike immigrants seeking to enter the United States, the country’s immigrants have legal procedures for removal procedures. Last year, it became a public face to the protests led by students against the Israel war in Gaza.
“It is time for us to show yes, we want to be visible,” he He said to the press In April, he stands in front of the tent camp. “The university must do something about what we ask. … They must stop investing in this genocide.”
New York Times Reports Mr. Khalil described his role as a negotiator and a spokesman for a supportive group Stripping the apartheid.
The group audited last summer what appears to be published in Instagram, which was now deleted to support the Bengali demonstrators. Local news I mentioned The saying, “We Westerners are fighting for the complete elimination of Western civilization.”
Whether Mr. Khalil is involved in this position unknown. A law firm did not respond to a request to clarify.
Federal immigration officials were arrested in his residents at his university on Saturday, according to the court document. They first told him that his detention was due to the cancellation of his student visa by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the file. But after they showed a documentation that he was a permanent legal resident, the agents arrested him anyway, saying that his green card was also canceled, the document said.
Mr. KHHil was transferred from New York to the ICE and Customs Enforcement Nursery in Louisiana. in statement Through a lawyer, the wife of a pregnant activist, an American citizen, asked the audience to support: “I need to help you bring Mahmoud to the house.”
On Sunday, the lawyer of Mr. Khalil presented Ivory – Prosecuting his detention illegal – in the Federal Court. Judge Jesse Foreman temporarily prevented the government from deporting Mr. Khalil, pending other measures in the southern province of New York. In the court on Wednesday, government lawyer said she wanted to transfer the case outside New York. Mr. Khalil’s legal team said that he was unable to reach his customer since he was transferred to Louisiana during the weekend.
Immigrants, including green cards holders, It can be deported For a variety of reasons. The government does not seem to have made any criminal charges against Mr. Khalil. He was not accused of contacting enthusiasm.
However, it appears that the government depends on part of the Immigration Law, which allows some inputs from the Foreign Minister. Immigrants can be deported if the Secretary decides to “have dangerous consequences in the harmful foreign policy” of the country. (The Foreign Minister then informs the Ministry of Internal Security, which can start deportation fees.)
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to this part of the Immigration Law, without placing, in response to questions from the screen about Mr. Khalil’s plans and visa cancellation plans. The next day of arrest, Secretary Marco Rubio He said on the social platform x“We will cancel visas and/or green cards for Hamas supporters in America so that they can be deported.”
Edmond d. Fountain/Reuters
The White House press secretary Caroline Levitte accused Mr. Khalil of organizing “collective protests that do not disrupt the classrooms only and harass Jewish American students [but also] Make them feel insecure on their campus. “
Mr. Khalil has the history of the Court of Primary Immigration in Louisiana on March 27, according to his notice of appearing, which refused to sign. He is now among more than 3.7 million Waiting Immigration cases.
The issue of opposition
The government was arrested by Mr. Khalil, praise from the Maga base The division of the Jewish community. He praised the Anti -Distort Association He said on x Any deportation or cancellation of the legal status “with the protection of the required legal procedures.”
Laura Reese, director of the Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Corporation, says that anyone in the United States has a visa or green card is “a guest, and if they will ask for a terrorist activity, they need to leave.” “Incitement of violence and support for terrorism is good reasons for the use of ice resources,” says Ms. Reese, who is the immigration official during the first Trump period, despite the logistical border of the deportation of Mr. Trump so far.
Meanwhile, the solidarity protests that support Mr. Khalil in California, Illinois and New York appeared, while a Seam The demands have been released by more than 2.9 million signatures. In Congress, 14 Democrats A message signed The contraction of detention as a “work of the anti -Palestinian racism”, as well as “an illegal abuse of power and political repression” that threatens all Americans.
In the New York Immigration Alliance, Murad Awood, President and CEO, described Mr. Khalil targeting “a stark unreprenever act.” In a statement, he appealed to the local officials to intervene.
Julia Rose Kraut, author of the book “The Threat of the opposition: a history of ideological exclusion and deportation in the United States.”
“Although the goals have changed over time, the use of ideological exclusion and deportation as tools for political repression did not do so,” she says.
The legal historian refers to the McCarthy era in the fifties that targeted the real and suspicious Communists. While 231 people were deported on ideological foundations between 1950 and 1956, this strategy was less than numbers and more than fear.
The number of students born abroad that the current administration will seek to deport on political foundations. Professor Chen says, even if it is limited, the effort can be “very symbolic, and perhaps very effective” in the suffocating opposition.
The issue of whether the government will have to justify its conclusion – in this case, why Mr. Khalil sees a potential source of “the consequences of harmful foreign policy.”
George Fishman, a senior legal colleague at the Center for Immigration Studies, regarding foreign policy, said the Supreme Court said that a “very large amount of respect must be given.” At the same time, determining the ability to deport through the Foreign Minister-or on the land of terrorism-has not been largely tested in federal courts, he says.
Others have warned against government revenge against the first amendment.
The “confusion” supporter of terrorism, “anti -Semitic activity”, and “fighting America” is an incredibly dangerous step, ” He writes Legal researcher Steve Vladik in his news message. Although the first may be sufficient to deport a green card holder, it “should not be” the second and the third, in itself, “.
Part of a broader campaign
As the vortex of legal questions, the case of Mr. Khalil appears as part of a broader campaign.
The Foreign Minister launches intelligent artificial efforts to cancel the visas of those who seem to support Hamas or other groups for terrorist organizations, Reports Axios, quoting senior officials whose name was not revealed. Reuters Reports The American-Arab Discrimination Committee realizes a “number of Palestinian students” who have been canceled since Mr. Trump returned to his post. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not take requests for confirmation of any of the reports.
Behind people, Washington also targets institutions. Last week, the Trump administration Declare The cancellation of about $ 400 million of the University of Colombia’s federal scholarships, noting the progress of the harassment of Jewish students. This week, the Ministry of Education He said Messages were sent to Colombia and 59 other higher education institutions warning them against protecting Jewish students or facing “possible enforcement measures”.
The White House continued to predict more students’ arrest.
“Columbia University has given the names of other individuals who participated in the pro -accommodation activity, and they refuse to help [Homeland Security] Determine these individuals on the campus. He said Journalist Secretary Mrs. Levitte on Tuesday. The university did not respond to a request for comment.
She said that the president “will not tolerate this.”