Deport Mahmoud Khalil? Let's be more careful about who we let into our country. | Opinion
I'm all for free speech, but I have a hard time advocating for a noncitizen who espouses support for terrorists who want to destroy our way of life.
Should Mahmoud Khalil be deported?
The Trump administration’s recent detainment and threatened deportation of the former Columbia University graduate student raises some thorny questions. And there aren’t easy answers.
On Friday, immigration officials announced the arrest of a second individual for overstaying her student visa by three years. The former student was previously arrested for her part in the Columbia protests.
Khalil, born in Syria, is of Palestinian descent. He came to the United States to earn a graduate degree, and he reportedly completed his program in December. He holds a green card, which makes him a legal permanent resident, although not a citizen.
It’s what he did during his time as a graduated student that has raised the ire of President Donald Trump and other administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Khalil was a leader of the pro-Palestinian protests – some of which were violent – on the Columbia campus after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Yet, the U.S. government has not pointed to any laws that Khalil has broken, but rather seems to be using his speech as the rationale for his deportation.
Is that enough justification? Is it constitutional?
Free speech advocates worry about the precedent that may be set
Federal immigration law allows the secretary of State to deport someone if their presence has “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
That’s a pretty broad standard.
Free speech proponents, including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, have raised alarms about whether the government is using Khalil’s speech alone as the reason for deporting him.
And unless the government knows more than it’s saying now, the Trump administration has said that “the allegation here is not that (Khalil) was breaking the law.”
Rather, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has alleged that Khalil sided “with terrorists,” organized group protests and distributed “pro-Hamas propaganda.”
As disturbing as that behavior is, it's protected speech under the First Amendment. That would be different, however, if the government could prove Khalil had provided material support to Hamas or had directly coordinated with a terrorist group.
So far that hasn’t happened.
Sarah McLaughlin, senior scholar in global expression at FIRE, said she’s concerned about how the government is handling Khalil’s case and that it could chill speech.
“It’s an idea that there’s two classes who can speak in the United States, because if you can be deported just for speaking your mind – and at this point, the government has not suggested that Khalil has engaged in criminal activity – so if you can lose your visa for that or if you can lose your green card for that, I think immigrants are right to ask if they are free to take part in the First Amendment that this country enjoys,” McLaughlin told me.
It's a privilege to be allowed into America, and we should be careful who we give it to
Trump had promised to fight growing antisemitism on college campuses, and one of his first actions was to sign an executive order laying out how the administration would cancel the visas of foreign students who engaged in pro-Hamas demonstrations.
Trump’s tough actions are reaping results. His administration this month said it would cancel $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia, given the school’s lackluster response to antisemitism on campus. The Ivy League school then finally took action to punish some of the campus troublemakers who violently invaded a campus building last spring.
It’s unclear what role Khalil played in that disturbing spectacle, but previous comments he’s made indicate he would have been on board.
For instance, last fall, pro-Palestinian protesters, including Khalil, tried to disrupt the first day of classes, leading to several arrests.
“As long as Columbia continues to invest and to benefit from Israeli apartheid, the students will continue to resist,” Khalil told a media outlet. “Not only protests and encampments − the limit is the sky.”
I’m all for free speech, and a strong supporter of the right for others to speak things I fervently disagree with. However, I have a hard time advocating for a noncitizen who espouses support for terrorists who want to destroy our way of life.
The secretary of State has made the case that this isn’t about free expression. “This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with,” Rubio said. “No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card.”
That’s true.
And if our laws make it hard to deport someone for their speech once they’re here, then let's make sure we know to whom we’re giving the privilege of entering this country in the first place.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at Paste BN. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques