In a brazenly unconstitutional act designed for maximum media exposure, Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “detained” high-profile human rights activist Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal U.S. resident, at his home in New York City.
The decision to take Khalil into custody was approved by Sec. of State Marco Rubio, and sources inside the State Department and Homeland Security say they have a list with more targets.
The United States cannot deport permanent U.S. residents who have not broken the law, but the Trump Administration believes a provision in a 70-year-old law, intended to combat Soviet spies, gives them a legal loophole to do just that.
The provision [of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)] – section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the act – gives the secretary of state power to deport any person who is not a citizen or national of the US, if they meet the threshold for “reasonable ground” of belief that they may have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the nation… The INA provision explicitly says people “shall not be excludable or subject to restrictions or conditions on entry into the United States” because of their “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations, if such beliefs, statements, or associations would be lawful within the United States.” But it allows for an exception – if the secretary of state “personally determines that the alien’s admission would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest.”
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Khalil, a Palestinian and recent graduate of Columbia University, has been accused without evidence of being aligned with Hamas since last year when he acted as a negotiator between university leadership and fellow students protesting the school’s support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Some right-wing pundits defending his abduction have gone as far as to say that he was paid to support the terrorist group. There is zero basis for this claim.
Federal judge Jesse M. Furman, a Barack Obama appointee, responded to Khalil’s arrest by blocking “any immediate attempts” by the Trump Administration to deport Khalil, who is believed to be at a detention facility in Jena, Louisiana at the time of this writing on March 11, 2025. The U.S. government initially withheld Khalil’s location from his attorneys.
To quote a well-spoken observer on X, “If they can disappear permanent residents, they can disappear citizens too, and it won’t stop at protesters. They’re using the issue of Palestine as a test run because they know democratic leadership will be slow to respond, allowing them to normalize abducting whoever they want.”
Criminalizing public protest and arresting protesters was endorsed by Donald Trump during his 2024 campaign and is part of the Project 2025 agenda.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
Like Donald using GSA to auction off federal properties, the extra-judicial kidnapping of Khalil is a continuation of his first regime’s (for lack of a better term) “activities.”
This time, though, his holy war against undocumented immigrants needed new flair, so he went after the highest-profile individual he could find—who is, it should be noted, a legal American resident and also recently completed work on his masters degree from Columbia University in December.
Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer, nailed it in her statement: “He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent, in violation of the First Amendment,” she said. “The government’s objective is as transparent as it is unlawful.”
