What To Know About Mahmoud Khalil, and Why His Green Card Was Revoked

TIME

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.

Transcript

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.

Category

Transcript

Recommended