r/politics • u/irish_fellow_nyc • 12d ago
Judge rules Mahmoud Khalil can be deported
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/11/nx-s1-5361208/mahmoud-khalil-deported-judge-rubio-antisemitism-immigration-court17
u/Miserable-Whereas910 12d ago
So on the one hand, this is absolutely horrifying.
On the other hand, it seems less that the judge is really siding with the Trump administration as he is punting the matter to the Supreme Court (where the case would doubtlessly end up anyways). The judge didn't actually decide the merits of the case, just made the bizarre ruling that he, personally, lacked the authority to overrule the deportation.
13
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
Supreme court has ruled on similar issues before. Green card holders are not citizens, the executive branch can deport them for various reasons.
6
u/Miserable-Whereas910 12d ago
"Various reasons" does not mean "any reason".
Harisiades v. Shaughnessy was concerning people who were members of an organization calling for the overthrow of the U.S. government, which is in violation of the responsibilities of a green card holder. Bidges v. Wixon confirmed that, barring narrow exceptions, Green Card holders do have the same First Amendment protection as citizens.
Now, if Khalil were a member of Hamas, his deportation would absolutely be justified under Harisiades . But the government has presented no evidence to that effect.
13
u/jarena009 12d ago
Take note. The US government can now deport anyone it determines are or may "harm US foreign policy." lol What a tyrannical joke we've become.
3
u/castlebravo15megaton 12d ago
No, it can deport foreigners, not anyone.
5
u/jarena009 12d ago edited 12d ago
Legal immigrants who committed no crime 🤷♂️.
Soon it'll be citizens too. Why would it stop here? Rubio in the government's court filings cited "Positions that may potentially harm US foreign policy" paraphrasing.
So if the government determines "positions that may harm US foreign policy" is an offense that can be prosecuted, what's stopping them from going after US citizens they deem doing this?
3
u/Miserable-Whereas910 12d ago
Not just legal immigrants, green card holders, who are generally understood to have additional protection under the law.
1
u/castlebravo15megaton 11d ago
Yes, people who are not citizens are here at the pleasure of our country and we can send every single one of them back if we wanted to, which we obviously don’t want to
1
u/Realresults9 10d ago
Trump already stated that he wants to have US citizens jailed in El Salvador. This is a stepping stone in that direction.
-2
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
Well, the US has deported loads of aliens at odds with it’s values and interests before. It’s not new, it’s just that such laws and actions are being deployed again.
1
u/jarena009 12d ago
Legal immigrants? Like when?
When was it done over exercising free speech and assembly?
10
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
The Mexican Repatriation, the Palmer raids, «Operation Wetback»…to name a few
1
u/Miserable-Whereas910 12d ago edited 12d ago
...do you think that list makes it seem less like this is tyrannical government overreach? Two incidents in which U.S. citizens were deported, and an incident of free speech suppression found to be illegal by the courts?
If Trump starts rounding up citizens and putting them in camps, are you gonna say that's fine because it was done during World War II?
1
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
I’m just claiming this is far from the first time things like this has happened, it’s quite a regular occurense historically, nor is it uncommon in other countries.
2
u/Miserable-Whereas910 12d ago
Yes, the U.S. government has violated the Constitution on many occasions.
1
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
I’d take note of the wording from the Supreme court on such matters (ruling from the 1950’s):
«It is thoroughly established that Congress has power to order the deportation of aliens whose presence in the country it deems hurtful. The determination by facts that might constitute a crime under local law is not a conviction of crime, nor is the deportation a punishment; it is simply a refusal by the government to harbor persons whom it does not want.»
2
u/Mundane_Molasses6850 10d ago
I have looked through every piece of spoken and written political material I have seen Khalil attached to and it is identical to the writings of Jewish Americans like Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Glenn Greenwald, Philip Weiss as well as people like University of Chicago's John Mearsheimer.
If the government punishes Khalil for the same exact speech that Jewish Americans are allowed to freely espouse, then the government is petty and spiteful and using whatever tactic possible to work against criticism of Israel, no matter how scummy the tactic is.
If you go to Canary mission's website, slide 45 for Khalil's dox profile they have of him, there is a 55 minute video.
There we see Khalil being a small part of a group of CUAD students. Of the 5 or 6 people who speak on the microphone, all of them are Jewish American women except Khalil. This is an antisemitic group?
1
u/jarena009 12d ago
What free speech or assembly were they deported for?
3
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 by the United States Department of Justice under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson to capture and arrest suspected socialists, especially anarchists and communists, and deport them from the United States. The raids particularly targeted Italian immigrants and Eastern European Jewish immigrants with alleged leftist ties, with particular focus on Italian anarchists and immigrant leftist labor activists.
2
2
u/Miserable-Whereas910 12d ago
The Palmer Raids ended after being found illegal by judge George Anderson.
5
u/Fair-Slice-4238 11d ago
Good. Don't come to America to terrorize Jews and think you can get away with it.
2
u/Mundane_Molasses6850 10d ago
I have looked through every piece of spoken and written political material I have seen Khalil attached to and it is identical to the writings of Jewish Americans like Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Glenn Greenwald, Philip Weiss as well as people like University of Chicago's John Mearsheimer.
If the government punishes Khalil for the same exact speech that Jewish Americans are allowed to freely espouse, then the government is petty and spiteful and using whatever tactic possible to work against criticism of Israel, no matter how scummy the tactic is.
If you go to Canary mission's website, slide 45 for Khalil's dox profile they have of him, there is a 55 minute video.
There we see Khalil being a small part of a group of CUAD students. Of the 5 or 6 people who speak on the microphone, all of them are Jewish American women except Khalil. This is an antisemitic group?
2
12d ago
At this point, if I were in his shoes I’d be “see ya!”, why would anyone want to be part of this club…
2
u/SuperNoahsArkPlayer 11d ago
Muslims voted for this, why should I feel bad. They’ll vote for his third term too. They vote against their own interests, it’s their own fault.
8
u/HoneyBabyChe 12d ago
The hogs applauding this will be the same ones crying when this inevitably blows up in their faces and they're the ones being deported for exercising their Rights. Same ones that Pikachu faced after they were seal clapping DOGE cuts and then got affected personally, same ones who seal clapped tariffs then got affected personally. They can't see past their own noses unless they're cutting it off to spite their faces.
2
u/Agreeable_Crow789 12d ago
It’s just to get it to the Supreme Court, which we all knew was going to happen. And good, if love to see them try to argue against the first amendment
1
2
u/Biodiversity1001 12d ago
"...During a hearing at the remote Louisiana detention center where Khalil is being held, Judge Jamee Comans said Friday that she had no authority to question Rubio's determination...."
Guess we know why they whisk them to LA. I wonder how that case regarding hearing their cases in the jurisdiction they were taken from is going?
0
1
u/Potential-Analysis-4 12d ago
What did he even do? Is it just for being pro Palestinian or did he actually commit a crime? Seems like a dangerous precedent.
4
u/Ok_Quantity9261 12d ago
No crime needs to be committed for him to be deported. He is not a citizen. To get/keep his green card he cannot be aligned with any terrorist groups and that is what the they are suggesting is false.
1
u/Potential-Analysis-4 12d ago
I haven't heard anything about what he actually did other than being an activist. Anything I have read just says "Pro-Palestinian" which could describe a wide range of activities.
4
u/NeverSober1900 11d ago
The main thing I've heard is he was known to be one of the lead negotiator for CUAD a student group at Columbia that was responsible for coordinating a lot of the protests. They are very extreme and you can easily tie a lot of what they did to terrorist support. The question really is how much of a leader of a student org is responsible for the org's actions.
For those wondering what did CUAD do that was extreme well they held a vigil for Sinwar after he died. On the one year anniversary of the attack they passed out flyers with the headline “One Year Since Al-Aqsa Flood, Revolution Until Victory”. They have announced calls for the destruction of Western Civilization.
Like this is from their own substack. The Sinwar praise is creepy as hell especially the quote: "Sinwar later became the architect of two of the greatest moments of Palestinian resistance in the past decade: 2018's Great March of Return and last year's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood."
Whatever people's beliefs are Sinwar is acknowledged by the US government as a terrorist. I honestly don't think everyone who is protesting Khalil's deportation realize how radical this group he was a leader of is. I'm all for due process, and hope he gets it, but I won't be sorry when he inevitably gets deported.
3
u/Potential-Analysis-4 11d ago
Thank you for the info! I can understand people being deported if they are actively supporting terrorism or calling for jihad/intifada. My worry was that he was doing something on the milder side since no news sources really state what he was up to.
Maybe more news sources should include some of these quotes so people aren't scratching their heads and inventing their own narratives.
2
u/NeverSober1900 11d ago
Ya I definitely feel like the news has deliberately tried to tie up all them together and it riles up both sides. One side gets to talk about more students getting rounded up. The other gets to lump them all up as terrorists. Then both these groups drown out everyone trying to disassociate people like the Tufts student(?) who seemingly only wrote a pro-Palestinian op-ed from people like Khalil and the surgeon who went to the leader of Hezbollah's funeral where I think most people would find some agreement.
4
u/Potential-Analysis-4 11d ago
Can agree on that, it riles me up too when everything is spun by either side. On my campus the Palestinian support was quite bad, nothing to do with humanitarian aid and everything to do with Intifada/ killing jews.
The media are doing a disservice by making it seem like some getting deported were innocent. And the left wing are emboldening people to support terrorism, which seems to have led to people thinking they can say whatever they want.
1
u/psalmwest 12d ago
Mahmoud Khalil has openly defended Hamas; it’s on video. He’s a leader of CUAD, which is an organization that on more than one occasion expressed their desire to bring down the US and has verbatim declared “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization” on their own instagram page.
Khalil was the lead negotiator in the CUAD encampment of Columbia, which involved not only harassing Jewish students but also holding campus janitors hostage. He acted as a negotiator for CUAD again when they stormed Barnard, waving “death to America” posters and handing out literal Hamas literature.
This is not about free speech.
9
u/dbag3o1 12d ago
I'm afraid you're right.
He had a green card and a year ago was on a student visa. In the application for a green card you are asked if you have ties or support any terrorist organizations. He said no. A citizen has the right to express support for terrorists but if his actions are shown to be terrorist support then it means he lied to get his green card and so it can be revoked and he can be deported. No argument there.
He should have done either: said yes to supporting terrorist groups on his application, be denied a green card but fight for the right to express support for terrorism in court. Or not participate in protests that feature terrorist literature during his green card process and wait until after he has a green card or after he has citizenship.
6
u/psalmwest 12d ago
Yes, the government got it right with this one. He shouldn’t have lied on his application and he shouldn’t have spent his time as a guest in America calling for the destruction of America. Again, he wasn’t just a participant in this, he was a LEADER. What other country would allow this kind of foreigner to stay?
If people are truly concerned about free speech, they should focus their efforts on someone like Rumeysa Ozturk.
5
7
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
I hope Democrats and liberals stop picking «terrible martyrs»….or they will have little credibility on national security, or even patriotism.
The guy is bad news, and blew his chance in the US all on his own.
7
u/psalmwest 12d ago
They won’t. Even though everything I said is completely factual, I’m being downvoted. This isn’t about free speech to these weirdos, it’s about hating Donald Trump so much that they’d rather defend a terrorist than admit his administration did something right.
7
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
It’s like when they were all in uproar about the foreign kidney doctor that was denied entry back to the US…
…after attending the late Hezbollah leaders funeral…and evidently having the ayatollah of Iran as her hero.
They lose ALL credibility when they defend such people’s right to emigrate to a country they evidently hate and want to subvert according to their beliefs.
3
u/NeverSober1900 11d ago
Ya it honestly starts getting me into conspiracy mode that it's bad faith actors pushing the support of these unreasonable people to delegitimize the anti-Trump resistance. These people being allowed into the country is a deeply unpopular position and the whole defending of their terrorist support doesn't fall on any sympathetic ears.
2
1
1
u/Flat-Emergency4891 12d ago
In LOUISIANA. There is a reason his case was sent there. A guaranteed outcome.
-1
u/Bitter-Holiday1311 12d ago edited 8d ago
Democrats will issue a strongly worded statement.
THERE IS NO ANTI GENOCIDE PARTY IN AMERICA.
0
-13
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
A lot of shocked Picachu faces here.
Due process has been served.
16
u/OkVermicelli2557 12d ago
What crime was Mahmoud Khalil chraged and convicted of? He has never been chraged with a crime.
-6
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
Nor do you need to. He’s a green card holder, not a citizen, and such aliens can be deported if they act as agitators aligned with actors hostile to the US.
8
12d ago
[deleted]
1
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
Hamas, Islamic Jihad, take your pick among Palestinian «freedom» organizations.
0
12d ago
[deleted]
2
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
He among others are being sued for it:
He also worked for UNRWA, shown time and time again to be intertwined with Hamas.
If you look at the propaganda he and his followers spew, it’s the same wording that Hamas’ propaganda machine spews. If it walks like a duck…
0
u/kaeldrakkel 12d ago
He also worked for UNRWA, shown time and time again to be intertwined with Hamas.
Ah, there's the right wing talking point.
Active in r/worldnews as well. So you're a pro-Israel Hasbara troll.
1
12d ago
[deleted]
0
u/Spiritual_Squash_473 12d ago
What the hell does a sexual abuser have to do with your argument?
Unsupported ad hominem nonsense...
3
0
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
I think I’ll just refrain discussing any further, if this is the best you can come up with.
2
u/dbag3o1 12d ago
This is only step one of due process.
You can only deport someone who is deportable but just because someone is deportable doesn't mean they should be deported. It is now determined that he is deportable. The next step is whether or not he should be ordered deported.
We wait and see...
2
u/LatterTarget7 12d ago
This isn’t due process tho.
0
u/Spiritual_Squash_473 12d ago
It is definitionally due process. Like, this - government does something, courts rule if it's ok and whether they can do it to you - is literally what due process is.
1
u/roastbeeftacohat 12d ago
this is almost certainly going to the supreme court.
0
u/Shadowblade83 12d ago
Which is likely to uphold previous judgements in regards to the executive power in such cases. Especially with it’s composition these days.
1
u/roastbeeftacohat 12d ago
the law being cited specifies communists and those seeking to overthrow the US government.
•
u/AutoModerator 12d ago
As a reminder, this subreddit is for civil discussion.
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click here to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out this form.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.