Mahmoud Khalil, Up with Whom We Need Not Put

I was amazed when I listened at NPR on March 10, because on every newscast all day long up until 4 p.m. — I tuned into NPR on every hour, just to check — the first or second story was not about the more than 1,000 Alawite civilians murdered in Latakia, or the massacres in Sudan, or the Russian missiles just shot into Ukraine, or the budget battle in Congress, or the election of Mark Carney as prime minister of Canada, or tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada. No, that first (or second) story was about Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student at Columbia who had just had his green card revoked, and had been taken into custody by ICE, which plans to deport him. Why this hypertrophied interest in the status of this one rather unappealing fellow, I wondered. Or rather, I didn’t really wonder, because the story of this innocent lad being seized by the terrifying agents of ICE (jackboots, brown shirts, fill in your favorite Nazi garb here) combines several fashionable themes: first, the persecuted Palestinian bravely speaking truth to power, that power being the all-powerful Zionist lobby; the human interest to tug at our heartstrings — Khalil has a wife who is eight months pregnant, and now, while she remains in Columbia University housing, her husband is now in ICE custody at La Salle detention facility in Louisiana; third, one more example of the sheer terribleness of the cruel and despotic Trump administration.

The usual suspects were up in arms over this “assault on freedom speech.” Here are a few of the outraged: “Knight Institute, NYCLU condemn arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24, call on universities to protect students and faculty,” by Miranda Lu, Columbia Spectator, March 10, 2025:

“Arresting and threatening to deport students because of their participation in political protest is the kind of action one ordinarily associates with the world’s most repressive regimes,” Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight Institute, wrote in a Sunday statement. “It’s genuinely shocking that this appears to be what’s going on right here.”

No, the “world’s most repressive regimes” don’t just revoke the visas of dissidents. They execute those who engage in political protest: see Iran, China, Russia, Syria under Assad for examples.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of NYCLU, characterized Khalil’s detention as a “targeted, retaliatory, and an extreme attack on his First Amendment rights” and condemned the Trump administration in a Sunday statement.

“The unlawful detention of Mr. Khalil reeks of McCarthyism,” Lieberman wrote. “It’s clear that the Trump administration is selectively punishing Mr. Khalil for expressing views that aren’t MAGA-approved – which is a frightening escalation of Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestine speech, and an aggressive abuse of immigration law.”

There were statements, too, from Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu), who tweeted: utterly outrageous. This is un-American. The forced disappearance of Mahmoud Khalil for nothing more than constitutionally protected speech.

The “forced disappearance” of Mahmoud Khalil? This phrase was meant by Omar to remind us of the students murdered by the Argentine military; they became known as “los desparecidos,” “the disappeared ones.” To “disappear” someone is to kill them. Mahmoud Khalil has not been killed. No one has touched a hair on his head. He has simply been denied the great privilege of having an American green card. He will have due process, too — a hearing before an immigration judge.

Then there was Rashida Tlaib (D-Jenin), who put in her hysterical two-bits:

Free Mahmoud Khalil. This is straight out of the fascist playbook. Criminalizing dissent is an assault on our First Amendment and freedom of speech,” said Tlaib, who represents Michigan. “Revoking someone’s green card for expressing their political opinion is illegal. Protesting genocide is not a crime.”

And another member of the Squad, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Jack Daniels) said that the arrest could set a dangerous precedent.You know, the Slippery Slope: first they came for Mahmoud Khalil, and soon they will come for all the Muslims, and then, at last, they will come for you and me. She’s alarmed about the government’s ability to “disappear US citizens”:

If the federal government can disappear a legal US permanent resident without reason or warrant, then they can disappear US citizens too,” Ocasio-Cortez posted on X, “Anyone – left, right, or center – who has highlighted the importance of constitutional rights + free speech should be sounding the alarm now.”

CAIR has set up a special page about Mahmoud Khalil, and a letter of protest you can sign about his savage mistreatment:

The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, who has a green card, represents a shocking escalation in President Trump’s promise to punish constitutionally-protected speech and activism. This arrest and detention because of Khalil’s advocacy on behalf of Palestinian rights sets a dangerous precedent and threatens the civil liberties of all. We call for Khalil’s immediate release and condemn any efforts to threaten the livelihoods of individuals because of their dissent.”

CAIR-NY stands in solidarity with Mahmoud Khalil and all those who exercise their right to advocate for justice and human rights and joins the calls to demand the immediate release of

Shocking escalation…punish constitutionally-protected speech…dangerous precedent…threats the civil liberties of all…etcetera etceterum.

O horrible, horrible, most horrible!

But leaving the hysterics aside, what is the case to deport Mahmoud Khalil?

Elder of Ziyon has some observations on that here: “The legal case to deport Mahmoud Khalil of ‘Columbia University Apartheid Divest’ is airtight,” Elder of Ziyon, March 10, 2025:

When you read the relevant US codes, the case to deport Mahmoud Khalil is unassailable….

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that Khalil was apprehended “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism,” alleging his involvement in “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

What are the legal grounds for the arrest?

Khalil a US permanent resident with a green card.

According to 8 U.S. Code § 1227 – Deportable aliens, “Any alien who is described in subparagraph (B) or (F) of section 1182(a)(3) of this title is deportable.”…

There is also no question that CUAD endorses and espouses terrorist activity. For example, on the one year anniversary of October 7, it handed out newspapers on campus called “The New York War Crimes” that included this full page “ad:”

Besides that, CUAD chants include explicit support for Hamas (“Yes, we’re all Hamas, pig!” and “Al-Qassam, you make us proud, kill another soldier now.”) Yet even without explicit support for Hamas, CUAD has praised “resistance’ over and over again, and that “resistance” is terrorism. One example is that they praised the October 1 shooting attack in Tel Aviv that murdered seven civilians, saying “On October 1, in a significant act of resistance, a shooting took place in Tel Aviv, targeting Israeli security forces and settlers. This bold attack comes amid the ongoing escalation of violence in the region and highlights the growing resolve of those resisting Israeli occupation.”

Apologists for Palestinian terror are pretending that this is a free speech issue. The New York Civil Liberties Union condemned his detainment: “The Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil – a green card holder studying in this country legally – is targeted, retaliatory, and an extreme attack on his First Amendment rights.”

The First Amendment is irrelevant to this case.

In the context of the legal codes I referenced, CUAD may or may not have the right to praise terrorism as free speech, but the fact that they do praise terrorism and terrorist acts, and Khalil’s position as their representative, are the only issues that are relevant. In other words, the very First Amendment that might allow CUAD to publicly praise Hamas terror is what proves Khalil violated the law….

Over to you, Jameel, Ilhan, Rashida, Alexandria, Nihad, Donna, and so many others — what’s your response?