On March 8, the Trump administration detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian Columbia University student and permanent U.S. resident, with the intention of deporting him because of his lawful participation in Gaza war protests on campus last spring. Although Khalil was never charged with a crime, Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio authorized the deportation order on the dubious grounds that the graduate student posed “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” A federal judge has since blocked the deportation of Khalil, whose lawyers maintain was politically motivated and unlawful.
Ranjani Srinivasan, an international Columbia student from India fled to Canada after learning that her student visa had been revoked by the Department of Homeland Security, charging without any evidence that she had been “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization.” On March 17, a doctor and Brown University professor from Lebanon was deported, despite having a U.S. visa, due to what Homeland Security officials said was her support for a Hezbollah leader and attending his funeral. What these cases all have in common is the Trump regime’s revocation of visas and green card status from people engaged in protected political speech, and then being deprived of any due process to challenge allegations made against them. Trump has also deported more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, denying the deportees their due process rights.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with journalist Sam Carliner who discusses Mahmoud Khalil’s detention and other punitive actions taken against university students and professors, and its impact on student activists nationwide who are fighting increasing U.S. government repression.
SAM CARLINER: Despite, you know, having every intention this administration has to deport him, they have not been able to. I think, in large part the widespread scrutiny that this move has faced, as well as protests in opposition, as well as the legal action that’s been taken to block his deportation are significant. But it seems like they’re trying to pull from a Cold War-era law that gives the secretary of state more authority to essentially go against standard immigration policy and procedures, to just deem certain people as threats to national security and deport them that way.
It seems pretty clear that this case has received a lot of attention and I think has really shown people the way in which these escalating attacks on immigrants, as well as the escalating repression of people’s right to protest. And I think it has to be noted that anti-war protests, in particular, I think throughout U.S. history have been some of the first targets of attempts to strengthen executive power.
It seems like this case has shown to a lot of people how intertwined these issues are. And I think the backlash to this move has in large part has slowed the administration’s ability to deport Mahmoud Khalil. But we’ll see how it plays out.
SCOTT HARRIS: I think it’s widely believed that this is a test case, as you indicated, Sam, because if they can get away with this through the courts or just by blustering their way around the courts and the U.S. Constitution, they are going to target many more people, non-citizens as well as citizens, possibly.
We don’t know where this is headed, but this is an important case because they are testing the waters to see how much they can get away with. What are your feelings about that and concern of where this may go next?
SAM CARLINER: I think that’s absolutely true. It is a test case. And I’m glad you mentioned that before the news of Mahmoud Khalil’s detention came about, I had already started writing this article to focus on two other examples of attacks on the movement. Cases that I think are also very important, which is that in the University of Michigan and the City University of New York, two public universities. You still have protesters from the wave of encampments that we saw last spring at both of these schools. Protesters who are involved in encampments on those campuses are facing felony charges for their peaceful activism and they’ve been trying to figure out how to get the charges dropped.
And I’m sure there’s other cases that I haven’t reported on, necessarily. But I think to me, in a way, the basis that we were already seeing of charges of these activists has set the framework for now another, even more extreme test in terms of the detention and potential deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, as well as the other activists that we are now seeing being detained and deported.
SCOTT HARRIS: Sam, in talking about this ramped up effort by the Trump regime to deport students who have been active in the anti-Israel Gaza war encampments last spring on campus, as well as some of the felony charges lodged against peaceful protesters, this is obviously designed to intimidate and chill free speech on campus when it comes to the issue of Israel-Palestine.
I could imagine a lot of foreign students would be reluctant to be out there on the campus grounds protesting at this point for fear they may have their student visa revoked, and there may be a lot of other U.S. native-born citizens who may themselves be reluctant to involve themselves in protests for concern they may be expelled or otherwise punished by the universities, which have shown no reluctance to unfairly, in my view, try to mete out punishment for peaceful protest.
SAM CARLINER: Even if the deportations don’t carry forward or if the felony charges, if people aren’t found guilty of those, even just the process of having to legally defend yourself against these charges — it bogs down the movement in a lot of ways. I’m an optimist and I believe with what I am seeing, it is possible that the way in which this attack is so egregious, it might be an opportunity for the movement to maybe draw in support from some people who — maybe until now — can see the stakes and the importance of defending the right to protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
I’ve been seeing some immigrant rights organizations speak a lot more candidly about the attack on pro-Palestine protesters and how that’s a problem. So maybe that can build a bridge and bring a new sectors. But I think it also means a lot of people who have been organizing now have extra risks they have to consider.
For more information, visit Sam Carliners’ Substack page, and Left Voice at leftvoice.org.
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