Mahmoud Khalil's lawyer calls deportation case 'a transparent attempt to punish him for his activism'

Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil were in court on Wednesday. Throngs of protesters outside demanded the activist’s release.

Khalil is in the U.S. legally, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him this weekend, stating his green card had been revoked. He led pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia University’s campus last spring.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Khalil’s case is “not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with.”

His lawyers say his detention is unlawful, and they want Khalil returned to New York. He’s detained in Louisiana.

Khalil's wife, a U.S. citizen, spoke publicly for the first time on Tuesday. She says the couple was not shown any warrant when Khalil was arrested, and the ICE officers hung up the phone on their lawyer.

“It suggests the typically escalated and abusive behavior by ICE, who's only been emboldened by the president and his crew to exact fear and terror and against immigrant communities,” says one of Khalil's lawyers Baher Azmy, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, a progressive nonprofit legal organization.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said, “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” That's a claim that you and your team deny. What argument do you make to counter that?

“It's a crafty attempt to, I guess, insinuate that he's somehow a member of or otherwise actively participates in Hamas' activities. That is, if you look carefully, not at all what they're ultimately saying. They're saying his activities, namely leading protests in support of Palestinian human rights and opposing the genocide there, is aligned to, that is shared by, parallel to what Hamas believes, which includes Palestinian human rights and an end to the genocide. That's simply it.

“So ultimately, it's an attempt to criminalize his speech and thought, and the hallmark of our constitutional system and free speech is that the government can't punish someone for dissenting from government foreign policy.”

 How do you make the distinction between protesting and being aligned to Hamas?

“I don't think ‘aligned to’ means a member of. ‘Aligned to’ references the activities he's engaged in. The activities he's engaged in is support for Palestinian human rights and an end to the bombing and siege of Gaza and to the genocide there. That is a message Hamas shares, as do millions of people around the world.

“And simply for that message, they've made very clear he is being deported because they have invoked some obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act relating to interference with U.S. foreign policy. So, let's be clear, under the government's view, constitutionally protected speech that the government does not like, the government can denominate as contrary to U.S. foreign policy interests and attempt to deport a lawful permanent resident.”

 Has Khalil been charged with any crimes? 

“Never. So, this is an extraordinary arrest and detention simply because the U.S. government dislikes his activism.”

 After 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was created. There was the passage of what was then the controversial Patriot Act, and the government's power to detain immigrants on charges of terrorism expanded. Talk about the groundwork that may have been laid back then for what we're seeing this week.

“I think people may not recall that post 9/11, there was also a chilling aura of arrest and repression. Thousands of Muslims who had mere civil immigration violations were being rounded up in neighborhoods, particularly all over New York and New Jersey, and put in immigration detention and deported.

“The government expanded its powers to deport people and detain people based on suspected and often attenuated links to terrorism. But I think here — because the government has not suggested there are any actions or material support connected to Hamas, merely that his speech is aligned to — I would suggest the historical, relevant historical comparators are the Red Scare and McCarthyism. During the Red Scare, Jewish radicals were persecuted for their suspected support for communism, and the same pattern prevailed during McCarthyism in the ‘50s.”

 To stay for a moment on what happened post 9/11, as you talk about the roundup of thousands, I think in some ways echoing Khalil's case today. Back then, families had no idea who made the arrest or where their loved one was detained. Do you think we're headed back to those days?

“I'm worried about what is to come. And I think the administration has explicitly said Khalil is a model of the kind of person they want to target. So there's, similar to 9/11, at least among the Arab-Muslim community, and certainly more broadly in the immigrant community, a feeling, of chill from the administration's projection of security theater and their own form of terror.”

 Tell us what the law says here. If you have a green card, which means you've been through a years-long vetting process, who can revoke that? Who has that power? And then who can order one deported? Doesn't an immigration judge have to sign off on that?

“ Yes. So [people] certainly cannot be deported without due process and the process through what are called removal proceedings. Typically, lawful permanent residents lose their status because there's uncovered some underlying fraud or something in their application. In this case again, they've invoked this obscure and vague provision that allows the secretary of state to undo someone's lawful permanent resident status because the secretary of state happens to believe that their activity in this case against speech runs contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States. And so that's the proposition, the legal proposition we will have to challenge in court because if allowed to stand, then the government will have the authority sort of willy nilly or based on Rubio's say so to pick up arrest and deport anyone who says things that Rubio thinks are contrary to his foreign policy objectives.”

Do have advice for green card holders out there who are suddenly more concerned about their status in the country?

“I think everyone who is nervous should go online and review ‘know your rights’ documents and toolkits for immigrants where you will learn things like do not open the door unless they have a warrant.

“And at the same time, the rest of the population, lawyers and the population alike should be in the courts and in the streets protesting this really troubling escalation of immigration detention and removal authority.”

This interview has been edited for clarity. 

Gabrielle Healy produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Peter O’Dowd. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.