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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   32371 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 10, 2025

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So here is the new juicy one.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/11/us/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-ice-green-card-hnk/index.html

A federal judge in New York has blocked any efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist at Columbia University who was arrested Saturday night, until a conference Wednesday, according to court documents. It’s unclear whether he will appear in court on Wednesday. “To preserve the Court’s jurisdiction pending a ruling on the petition, Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise,” the Monday filing said. Khalil, who helped lead Columbia’s student protest movement demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, was arrested Saturday night by federal immigration authorities who said they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney. His arrest is the latest escalation by Trump – in what he calls “the first arrest of many to come”– to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, and comes days after he vowed to deport foreign students and imprison “agitators” involved in “illegal protests.” On Monday evening, hundreds carried signs as they marched through lower Manhattan and called for Khalil’s release. Khalil, who completed his work on his master’s degree in December, was at the forefront of the student-led anti-war movement at Columbia University last year. He was among those under investigation by a new university committee that brought disciplinary charges against dozens of students for their pro-Palestinian activism, according to The Associated Press. “ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the US government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” Khalil’s attorney Amy Greer said. “The US government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.”

Couple of thoughts:

Section 3(b)(VII) of 8 U.S. Code § 1182

endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization;

Chances of him being in support of Hamas are not that low. He is activist - so earning or giving money from someone related to hamas is plausible. He is refugee grown Syria - so being related or in some way associated with any terrorist organization in the region is also plausible.

This is obviously a 1A amendment violation if all he did was legal. On the other hand a lot of the students' protests since oct 7 were of dubious legality. On the third - the US government seems to have quite wide discretion about who to admit before they are citizens. And Elon of course has access to quite a bit of his deleted tweets and dm's so it could land either way.

I do think that probably the government has a good case since they have designated shitload of organizations there as terrorists and they need a public statement of support for one of them for the case to not be completely meritless. Or a single chant from the river to the sea.

Because of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's personal involvement, it is likely they are claiming the foreign policy exception, which explicitly applies even to activities legal in the US. This is going to make the issue whether or not that particular exception is unconstitutional, in particular whether it is unconstitutional as applied to permanent residents (who are often more protected than temporary visa holders). I think most likely it will be found unconstitutional as applied to permanent residents.

If so the only logical response would be to dramatically increase the scrutiny applied to granting of permanent resident status. It is unacceptable that we would be required to import people who seek to destroy us.

If so the only logical response would be to dramatically increase the scrutiny applied to granting of permanent resident status. It is unacceptable that we would be required to import people who seek to destroy us.

Us? He's protesting against Israel, not the US. Those are two separate countries, and the Israelis have done objectively more harm to the US and US interests than the Palestinians ever have. How many US navy ships have been bombed by Palestinian fighter jets?

Even granting that in this specific case the subject in question is not broadly anti-American, the principle being proposed - that permanent residents cannot have their status revoked for any free speech activity, even including explicit subversion and undermining of our own policy - is so broad as to make vetting earlier in the process much more important.

Even granting that in this specific case the subject in question is not broadly anti-American

In this case he's actually pro-American - American interests are hurt by your entanglement with Israel and the various blackmail/influence operations they run (ever hear about why the Monica Lewinsky affair happened?), but sure.

that permanent residents cannot have their status revoked for any free speech activity, even including explicit subversion and undermining of our own policy

Yes, this is actually a good thing. Free speech is good and if your policy can't stand up to criticism then it deserves to be criticised. Mahmoud does not have magical powers which mean that his protests against the genocide of his people make American policy less effective - what you're actually saying here is that American policy is so weak, fragile and ineffective that it cannot withstand even the mildest of criticism. You're claiming that the entire US foreign policy establishment is effectively an emperor with no clothes, and that's so much worse than the possibility that someone who is only a mere permanent resident can criticise government policy that I can't understand your position here.

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