Snapshot: The Trump Regime Arrests a Legal Resident

Federal agents targeted a pro-Palestinian Columbia University student, further endangering the constitutional right of freedom of speech of us all

A protest in New York City yesterday. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

Mahmoud Khalil is a lawful permanent resident of the United States with a green card. His American wife is eight months pregnant with their child. Khalil, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, was also a leader of the pro-Palestinian protests last year at Columbia University, often serving as a negotiator between student activists and school officials. Described by one of his professors as mild-mannered, he completed his master’s degree in public administration at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in December.

On Saturday night, federal immigration agents in plain clothes came to his Manhattan apartment building and arrested him. They said his green card was revoked. They took him away in handcuffs in an unmarked vehicle. His lawyers said in a federal petition in U.S. District Court in New York that Khalil’s constitutional rights of freedom of speech and due process were violated.

They demanded his release. Instead, he was transferred to a detention center in Louisiana more than 1,300 miles away.

Without evidence, Donald Trump accused Khalil and other students of engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.” He said agents “proudly apprehended and detained” him. “This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump ominously posted on his Truth Social, adding, “We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply.”

Whatever your views may be about the Israel-Gaza war, this should be seen as an unconstitutional arrest of a permanent resident who expressed his political views. This is an effort to silence the free speech of people whose views disagree with the Trump regime. The targeting and possible deportation of Khalil is intended to silence dissent and scare officials at colleges and universities across the country. It is deeply un-American.

For the record, Khalil told CNN last April, “There is, of course, no place for antisemitism.” He also said, “I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other.”

This is an important discussion. But let’s not be distracted into believing that Trump and his regime cares about confronting antisemitism. They have found a topic and a target to chill speech, threaten the free flow of ideas in higher education and demonstrate their hostile rejection of diverse viewpoints in our society.

In the Soviet Union, there was the KGB that would knock on the door. In Nazi Germany, the Gestapo would knock on the door. Countless citizens who had committed no crime were taken away in the night. No due process, just raw terrorizing that in many instances led to death. I evoke that history reluctantly and with real dread.

In all that we are witnessing in the flood of hateful actions, it remains important to not overreact—to recognize that there is still a judicial system and people in place to confront unconstitutional behavior. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow on Khalil’s case. This follows a U.S. district judge asserting that “Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court orders otherwise.”

I will be watching the outcome with deep worry and hope. If Mahmoud Khalil is thrown out of our country for expressing his First Amendment rights, we all must worry who will be next.

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