LOS ANGELES.–Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by Immigration, Customs Enforcement [ICE] March 8 saying his student visa and permanent resident and green card were revoked on orders of the U.S. State Department. Khalil was a prominent pro-Palestinian agitator at Columbia University, responsible for organizing the student encampment and much of the anti-Semitism, making it difficult for Jewish students on the Columbia University campus. Revoking Khalil’s immigration status documents shows that the Trump administration means business when it comes to agitators hiding behind immigration documents. Trump officials announced that it was cutting $400 million in grants and contracts at Columbia for its tolerance on anti-Semitism on campus, turning the otherwise tolerant campus into a hotbed of anti-Semitism.
Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi served notice that anyone in the country on immigration documents can have them revoked for organizing riots or other unlawful events, including spreading anti-Semitism. Columbia’s past Egyptian-born President Minouche Shafik showed far too much tolerance on campus of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel protests over Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Khalil was detained and sent federal immigration holding tank in Elizabeth, New Jersey where he was transported to an ICE detention facility in New Orleans. “We have not been able to get any more details about why he was being detained,” said Amy Greer, Khalil’s attorney. “This is a clear escalation. The administration is following through on its threats,” Greer said, referring to dealing with foreign agitators. Khalil became the most recognized anti-Israel, anti-Semitic organizer on the Columbia campus.
Trump said Khalil’s arrest was the first of many to come of student agitators from foreign countries spreading no free speech but promoting anti-Semitism on college campuses. How pro-Palestine or Hamas demonstrators morph their view to harass Jewish students is anyone’s guess. What does any student’s religious background have to do with political situations halfway around the world? “This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social post. Freedom of speech has nothing to do with anti-Semitism or making it impossible for Jewish students to attend classes at U.S. universities. Kahlil’s backers in the Council on Islamic-American Relations [CAIR] claim Kahlil’s free speech rights were violated. But judging the extent of pro-Palestine protests going on at Columbia, the demonstrations went way beyond free speech to intimidation and harassment.
Before his arrest March 8, Khalil told the press that he was targeted by the government for his anti-war protests at Columbia. Khalil talks about anti-war but he specifically accuses the Israeli government of genocide and starvation against Palestinians in Gaza. Trump accuses Columbia anti-war protesters of “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” that he said would no longer be tolerated. Khalil was the first to say that Jewish students backed pro-Palestine-Hamas protests but did they really? While it’s true a some Jewish “J-Street” peace activists backed anti-war protests, they didn’t back the vile anti-Semitic slurs and bullying toward Jewish students made uncomfortable just going to classes. Former President Minouche Safik cut too much slack to pro-Palestinian-pro-Hamas protesters, letting Khalil’s mob take over part of the Columbia campus.
Khalil’s attorney Pam Greer, paid by CAIR, filed for injunctive relief in Manhattan federal court with a writ of habeas corpus. Greer asked the federal to intervene claiming Khalil was a legal U.S. resident with a green card. Acting like Khalil’s arrest was a mistake, Greer doesn’t know whether or not his permanent residency status and green card was revoked by the State Department, Homeland Security or ICE. Yet Greer contends that Khalil was detained because of his “criticism of U.S. institutions that support Israel,” something protected by the First Amendment. Based on what Trump said, he’s ordered the State Department, Homeland Security and ICE to go after foreign agitators regardless of their immigration status. “Even the threat of detention and deportation has a chilling effect on speech,” Greer wrote, conflating free speech with political agitation.
All the George Soros groups paid to exploit college campuses around the country, like Drummond Pike’s the San Francisco-basedTides Center can’t hide behind current immigration laws that supersede foreign students who happen to have student visa, or, like Khalil, permanent residency and green cards. Trump wants potential agitators to know the U.S. will not tolerate any pretext to express anti-Semitism on college campuses in the United States. Free speech applies to legal residents but political agitation and unlawful civil rights violations like anti-Semitism is not tolerated under current U.S. law. Whatever happened at Columbia or any other college campus in the past won’t be tolerated today under the guise of free speech. Trump sees through the political extremists and agitators that like to take advantage of the First Amendment to spread their bigotry.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
