Pro-Hamas activist’s deportation not a ‘free speech’ matter and law is on Trump’s side: experts

Authorized consultants slammed a current left-wing narrative that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest of a pro-Hamas activist who led protests on Columbia College’s campus is an assault on the First Modification, telling Fox Information Digital the case is rooted in nationwide safety issues and that immigration legal guidelines assist the Trump administration’s efforts to deport the agitator.

“The State Division has pulled the primary visa of a international pupil who engaged in pro-Hamas disruptions. That’s the suitable factor to do if we need to repair campus cultures,” Ilya Shapiro, the director of constitutional research on the conservative Manhattan Institute assume tank, wrote in an essay for the City Journal Friday. “And opposite to disingenuous critics, such a transfer poses no First Modification issues.” 

“Whereas the federal government can’t ship foreigners to jail for saying issues it doesn’t like, it could actually and may deny or pull visas for individuals who advocate for causes inimical to the US,” he wrote. “There’s nothing objectional or controversial about eradicating those that harass, intimidate, vandalize, and in any other case intrude with an academic establishment’s core mission. Extra, please.” 

Professional-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil was taken into ICE custody a day after Shapiro’s essay was revealed at his Columbia College-owned residence in Manhattan. The Division of Homeland Safety stated he was a former Columbia graduate pupil who “led actions aligned to Hamas, a chosen terrorist group.” 

TRUMP VOWS ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST MAHMOUD KHALIL WAS ‘FIRST ARREST OF MANY TO COME’ 

Mahmoud Khalil on the New York Columbia College campus at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, April 29, 2024. (Ted Shaffrey/The Related Press )

Khalil, who reportedly graduated with a grasp’s diploma from Columbia in December 2024, helped lead the anti-Israel protest that plagued the campus in April 2024, together with as a negotiator for radical agitators college students on campus as they arrange a tent encampment and took over an educational constructing, Hamilton Corridor. 

He served as a pacesetter of a gaggle referred to as Columbia United Apartheid Divest, which demanded that Columbia utterly divest from Israel amid the nation’s warfare with Hamas that started on Oct. 7, 2023. The divest group stated its primary objective was to “problem the settler-colonial violence that Israel perpetrates with the assist of the US and its allies,” in line with an op-ed revealed within the Columbia Spectator in November 2023.

DHS moreover reported that Khalil “led actions aligned to Hamas, a chosen terrorist group.”

A pupil protester waves a Palestinian flag outdoors the doorway to Hamilton Corridor on the campus of Columbia College, New York, April 30, 2024. (Mary Altaffer/The Related Press)

President Donald Trump and his administration have railed towards the protests on school campuses, which hit a fever pitch in 2024 earlier than Trump was again in workplace. 

The forty seventh president signed an govt order in January placing pro-Hamas protesters within the U.S. on pupil visas on discover that they are going to be deported. 

“To all of the resident aliens who joined within the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on discover: come 2025, we are going to discover you, and we are going to deport you,” the president stated in a Jan. 30 truth sheet on the manager order. “I may even rapidly cancel the scholar visas of all Hamas sympathizers on school campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like by no means earlier than.”

JUDGE BLOCKS ANTI-ISRAEL COLUMBIA AGITATOR MAHMOUD KHALIL FROM DEPORTATION AS POLITICIANS COME TO HIS DEFENSE

Khalil was born in Syria in 1995, the New York Put up reported, and has been within the U.S. on a inexperienced card. He’s beneath investigation as a potential risk to U.S. nationwide safety, with investigators reportedly discovering “antisemitic and hateful” posts on Khalil’s social media accounts, White Home sources informed Fox Information Tuesday. DHS, the Division of Justice and the secretary of state are concerned within the investigation, in line with sources. 

Mahmoud Khalil speaks at a press briefing organized by anti-Israel protesters who arrange an encampment on Columbia College’s Morningside Heights campus, June 1, 2024. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu through Getty Photographs)

Following Khalil’s detention, Democrats and different left-wing activists and teams slammed the arrest as an assault on the First Modification, which protects freedom of speech and meeting. 

The Senate Judiciary Democrat’s X account additionally referred to as for Khalil to be freed, which was met by a response from the White Home account quoting Trump that extra arrests will quickly observe. 

Julian Epstein, an legal professional and former chief counsel to the Democratic Home Judiciary Committee, informed Fox Information Digital that “the arrests and deportation of pro-Hamas organizers appears not solely authorized however lengthy overdue.”

“The Immigration and Naturalization Act permits the denial or revocation of any visa holder who espouses or in any other case helps terrorist organizations,” he continued. “Additional, 18 USC 245 makes it a legal offense for any of those protesters to intimidate, harass or impede Jewish college students from transferring freely about campus and attending courses.” 

Epstein continued that deportation is a “gentle step” and that the DOJ ought to take into account legal prosecutions of violent protesters. 

“The Columbia College protesters’ assist for Hamas has been broadly reported, as have their violent actions focused at Jews,” he stated. “Deportation is a gentle step. The DOJ must be contemplating legal prosecutions.”

ICE AGENTS ARREST ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST WHO LED PROTESTS ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CAMPUS FOR MONTHS 

Shapiro added in his essay that immigration legislation clearly outlines that a person’s visa, which provides non permanent entry to the U.S., or inexperienced card, which grants everlasting residence to a non-American, could be revoked. 

“Certainly, it’s a fundamental utility of U.S. immigration legislation, which says that individuals right here on a visa (vacationer, pupil, employment, or in any other case) who reveal themselves to be ineligible for that visa — ‘inadmissible,’ within the parlance of the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) — can have their visa revoked,” Shapiro continued within the piece.

In response to claims that the Trump administration was violating Khalil’s First Modification rights, Shapiro responded on X that “inexperienced playing cards could be revoked. We’ve legal guidelines and should implement them.”

Khalil “having a inexperienced card solely modifications the extent of the method due — a listening to earlier than an immigration decide slightly than simply an administrative order — not the substance of the legislation or the result,” Shapiro added in remark to Fox Information Digital Tuesday. 

U.S. officers even have harassed that the detention of Khalil is a matter of nationwide safety, not free speech, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio figuring out that the activist’s presence within the U.S. holds “critical opposed international coverage penalties,” in line with a senior State Division official. 

NYC MAYOR ON MAHMOUD KHALIL ARREST: ‘I DIDN’T SEE THAT SUPPORT FOR ME’

“Secretary Rubio discovered that his presence and actions within the U.S. would have probably critical opposed international coverage penalties for the US and would compromise a compelling U.S. international coverage curiosity, rendering him deportable beneath Part 237 (a)(4)(C) of the [Immigration and Nationality Act],” a senior State Division official informed Fox Information Digital Tuesday. 

A protester is arrested throughout a rally towards the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil in New York, March 10, 2025. (Stephanie Keith for Fox Information Digital)

Part 237 (a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act particulars: “An alien whose presence or actions in the US the Secretary of State has affordable floor to imagine would have probably critical opposed international coverage penalties for the US is deportable.” 

There is no such thing as a requirement {that a} crime be dedicated beneath this part of the legislation. As an alternative, it gives broad energy to the secretary of state to declare an alien deportable.

Brooke Goldstein, a human rights legal professional and govt director of the Lawfare Undertaking, which focuses on the civil rights of the Jewish group, informed Fox Information Digital that Khalil is “warping the First Modification” in an effort to justify his actions on campus. 

“Mahmoud Khalil is going through deportation due to his conduct, together with allegedly partaking in constructing takeovers — legal exercise that endangers public security — and endorsing and espousing terrorist exercise in contravention of the Immigration and Nationality Act,” she stated Tuesday. “As an alternative of taking accountability for his actions, Khalil is attempting to justify them by warping the First Modification as one way or the other defending his unlawful conduct. It doesn’t.” 

“Being some type of ‘spokesperson’ for terror doesn’t immunize Khalil from legal responsibility for his acts and the acts of his co-conspirators,” Goldstein stated. “The U.S. authorities has each proper to revoke the visas or inexperienced playing cards of people who endorse or promote terrorism, and whose conduct deprives Individuals of their civil rights.” 

She added that being a inexperienced card holder is a “privilege,” not a proper, and that when a inexperienced card holder violates the situations of their admittance to the U.S., they face the results. 

“Everybody right here on a pupil visa, or who applies for a inexperienced card, is conscious of their obligations, and of the expectations on their habits as a situation for being in our nation,” she stated, noting that Khalil “was one of many leaders and organizers of a number of occasions concentrating on Jewish college students.”

“This case isn’t about Khalil expressing his Jew-hatred by way of speech, it’s about him appearing on that hate — about planning, and fascinating in, actions that deprive others of their rights. It’s Khalil’s actions, not his phrases, that make him topic to deportation,” she stated. 

Protesters rally towards the arrest of former Columbia graduate pupil Mahmoud Khalil in New York, March 10, 2025. (Stephanie Keith for Fox Information Digital)

New York state Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz, a Republican, additionally bucked the narrative that Khalil’s case is targeted on First Modification rights, saying he wasn’t arrested “for holding an indication or chanting in a quad,” he was arrested “as a result of he actively engaged in actions aligned with Hamas, a blood-soaked group that massacres civilians.”

“Let’s dispense with the nonsense — this isn’t a debate over free speech; it’s a matter of nationwide safety, plain and easy,” he stated. “The First Modification protects phrases, not actions taken in service of a terrorist trigger.” 

Blumencranz took challenge with New York management’s dealing with of the arrest, arguing that Democrats similar to Gov. Kathy Hochul turned a blind eye to the protests that broke out on Columbia’s campus in 2024, which included Jewish college students reporting that they feared for his or her security and left campus. 

“That is the novel left’s twisted sport: hijack the language of civil rights to defend those that brazenly assist terror,” he stated. “Cry ‘free speech’ when it’s handy, keep silent when the mobs descend on Jewish college students, and fake {that a} man aiding Hamas is only a misunderstood activist. It’s a shame.” 

“Let’s be crystal clear — a inexperienced card isn’t a birthright,” he stated. “It’s a privilege. The USA has each proper, and certainly an obligation, to revoke it from anybody who makes use of their time right here to foment extremism. However as an alternative of backing legislation and order, politicians like Letitia James, Chuck Schumer, Kathy Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries and their radical allies are tripping over themselves to defend Khalil, all whereas ignoring the actual victims: Jewish college students compelled to flee their very own campus.” 

Following Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest, President Donald Trump warned that “many” extra arrests will observe. (Win McNamee/Getty Photographs)

Following Khalil’s arrest, Trump warned that “many” extra arrests will observe. 

“That is the primary arrest of many to return,” Trump wrote in a submit. “We all know there are extra college students at Columbia and different Universities throughout the Nation who’ve engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American exercise, and the Trump Administration is not going to tolerate it. Many will not be college students, they’re paid agitators. We’ll discover, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our nation – by no means to return once more.”

A Manhattan federal decide dominated Monday that Khalil not be deported “except and till the Court docket orders in any other case.” A listening to on his case is scheduled for Wednesday. He’s being held on the Lasalle Detention facility in Louisiana, in line with ICE. 

DEMOCRATS UNDER FIRE FOR BACKING ARRESTED PRO-HAMAS AGITATOR

Demonstrators collect in Decrease Manhattan to protest of the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, March 10, 2025. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu through Getty Photographs)

His legal professional has railed towards his arrest, however stated in an announcement that Khalil is “wholesome and his spirits are undaunted by his predicament.”

“The remarks by authorities officers, together with the President, on social media solely affirm the aim — and illegality — of Mahmoud’s detention,” Khalil’s legal professional, Amy E. Greer, stated in a Monday assertion. “He was chosen for instance to stifle solely lawful dissent in violation of the First Modification. Whereas tomorrow or thereafter the federal government could cite the legislation or course of, that toothpaste is out of the tube and irreversibly so. The federal government’s goal is as clear as it’s illegal, and our function as Mahmoud’s legal professionals is to make sure it doesn’t prevail.”

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Fox Information’ Diana Stancy, Danielle Wallace and Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.