Buried in the trove of Executive Orders signed by President Donald Trump in his first weeks in office was a directive linked to last year’s campus protests over the Israel-Gaza war.
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00:00Buried in the trove of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in his first weeks
00:04in office was a directive linked to last year's campus protests over the Israel-Gaza war.
00:10The order called for the revocation of student visas for individuals suspected of sympathizing
00:14with Hamas.
00:16Trump said in a White House fact sheet announcing that executive order, quote, to all the resident
00:21aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice.
00:25Come 2025, we will find you and we will deport you.
00:28On the night of March 8, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE,
00:34followed through on Trump's threat, detaining Mahmoud Khalil, who is an activist and former
00:39student of New York City's Columbia University, where pro-Palestinian demonstrations last
00:44year became a national lightning rod amid a debate about the Middle East conflict.
00:48Khalil, who was raised in Syria and is of Palestinian descent, played a prominent role
00:53in the public demonstrations at the university and served as a negotiator between protesters
00:58and university officials last spring.
01:00He graduated from Columbia with a master's degree in December.
01:04Now, Khalil's situation immediately drew international attention because of the reason
01:09he was detained and because he holds a green card, which allows individuals to live and
01:14work permanently in the United States.
01:16The government said Khalil is a citizen of Algeria and that he could be deported under
01:20the Immigration and Nationality Act.
01:22However, the notice did not mention any crimes that the federal government believes Khalil
01:27may have committed.
01:28Khalil is currently being held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, roughly 1,300
01:34miles away from his apartment in New York City.
01:37In a statement, a Homeland Security spokesperson said that Khalil, quote, led activities aligned
01:42to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, and linked his arrest to Trump's executive
01:47order.
01:48Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who ultimately made the decision to try to deport Khalil,
01:53said on March 12 that this case was not about free speech.
01:57This is not about free speech.
01:58This is about people that don't have a right to be in the United States to begin with.
02:01No one has a right to a student visa.
02:03No one has a right to a green card, by the way.
02:06So when you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a
02:10right to deny you for virtually any reason.
02:12Now, it's important to note Trump's immigration officials have not yet provided evidence to
02:17support their accusations against Khalil or other students involved in the protests.
02:22White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt on March 11 alleged that Khalil distributed
02:27pro-Hamas flyers on Columbia's campus, but his lawyers have rejected that claim.
02:33This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus
02:39classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college
02:45campus, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, flyers with the logo of Hamas.
02:51I would add that, you know, whatever flyers the White House spokesperson may have been
02:56talking about, that has certainly not been the government's position in court.
03:00Khalil's lawyers have said that he felt compelled to speak out against the conflict in Gaza,
03:05where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed since Israel began a bombing and
03:10ground campaign in response to Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attack.
03:16This week, hundreds of protesters have gathered in New York City decrying his arrest, and
03:20additional events demanding his release have taken place all across the country.
03:25Here's what to know about Khalil's case, and why his green card status suggests a potential
03:30shift in U.S. immigration policy under the Trump administration.
03:34So a common question with this case is, can a green card holder be deported?
03:39The answer is technically yes.
03:41While green card holders enjoy many of the same rights as U.S. citizens, they can still
03:45face deportation under certain conditions, typically for criminal behavior or violations
03:51of immigration law.
03:53Foreign nationals can also lose their visas for endorsing or being associated with terrorist
03:57groups, but only if the government can provide material evidence of that.
04:01And again, the Trump administration has not provided any written evidence to support Khalil's
04:06deportation beyond Secretary Rubio's determination under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
04:11Khalil's lawyers have said there's no indication that their client has committed any crime
04:15or violated the terms of his residency.
04:18He was taken by U.S. government agents in retaliation essentially for exercising his
04:22First Amendment rights, for speaking up in defense of Palestinians in Gaza and beyond,
04:27for being critical of the U.S. government and of the Israeli government.
04:30Those are the reasons why he was targeted, those are the reasons why he was detained.
04:34Immigration law experts note that deporting a green card holder solely for their political
04:38beliefs would likely violate the First Amendment, which protects free speech and the right to
04:43protest.
04:44Deporting a green card is also quite rare, and typically requires a hearing before an
04:48immigration judge.
04:49The process for that is generally lengthy and requires clear evidence of wrongdoing,
04:55and given the immense backlogs in immigration courts, it could take years before he gets
04:59a hearing before an immigration judge.
05:01If Khalil's green card is ultimately revoked as a result of his activism, immigration experts
05:06say it would mark a disturbing shift in how U.S. government interprets the scope of its
05:10power over lawful permanent residents.
05:13In Khalil's case, the government would need to prove that his actions go beyond protected
05:17political speech, and that his associations or activities pose a genuine national security
05:22threat.
05:23Here's Tom Homan, the Trump administration's border czar, telling Fox Business that federal
05:28authorities absolutely can deport someone who is in the country legally.
05:31Absolutely we can.
05:32I mean, did he violate the terms of his visa?
05:36Did he violate the terms of his residency here?
05:38You know, committing crimes, attacking Israeli students, locking down buildings, destroying
05:45property, absolutely any resident alien who commits a crime is eligible for deportation.
05:50The Khalil case is part of a broader trend in which the Trump administration has sought
05:54to expand its use of immigration law to remove individuals deemed to be a threat to the United
05:59States.
06:00The effort is in line with many of Trump's actions from his first term, which included
06:04creating a task force to review whether individuals have lied on their immigration forms.
06:09In 2020, Trump's Justice Department also created a new denaturalization section in
06:14its immigration office to identify naturalized immigrants to strip of their citizenship rights.
06:20Of the 228 denaturalization cases the DOJ has filed since 2008, about 40% of them were
06:27brought during Trump's first four years in office.
06:30The Khalil case signals that the Trump administration is willing to employ those powers far more
06:35aggressively than it did during Trump's first term, a shift that could have far-reaching
06:39implications for civil rights and free speech in America.