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“President Donald Trump's administration said it had canceled grants and contracts worth about $400 million to Columbia University because of what it described as antisemitic harassment on and near the school's New York City campus.” Reuters
“U.S. immigration agents arrested a Palestinian graduate student who has played a prominent role in pro-Palestinian protests at New York's Columbia University as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's promised crackdown on some anti-Israel activists. Mahmoud Khalil, a student at the university's School of International and Public Affairs, was arrested by U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents…
“His wife is a U.S. citizen, eight months pregnant, according to news reports, and he holds a U.S. permanent residency green card… Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared a news report of Khalil's arrest on social media on Sunday, adding the comment: ‘We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.’” Reuters
The left is critical of the administration’s actions, arguing that they violate the First Amendment.
“Federal law and regulations say the government can’t terminate these grants or contracts for violation of the anti-discrimination law unless a court has found that it has done so after a hearing at which the university has the right to defend itself…
“The law further states that no termination can happen until the university is advised of its failure to follow the law and the government ‘has determined that compliance cannot be secured by voluntary means.’… Finally, the law says that before any termination of funding can take place, the federal government must tell the relevant House and Senate committees about its plans… That hasn’t happened, either…
“The announced action fits a pattern the Trump administration has been following since it came into office: It declares that it’s doing things it can’t legally do and doesn’t worry about the consequences. At some point, a university, whether Columbia or the next one Trump targets, will challenge the action in court — and will win. By then, however, the damage will already be done.”
Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
“This administration doesn’t care about antisemitism… If the administration can get away with defunding universities under the banner of fighting antisemitism, it will quickly use that same power to try to control campuses on issues relating to the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people, the teaching of American history, reproductive health care in student health centers and hospitals, and more…
“If it can get away with arresting and deporting permanent legal residents like Khalil, to say nothing of student visa holders, it will use that power to terrify and intimidate international students and scholars on campus in more and more invasive ways… History shows us clearly: Once a government establishes this kind of power, it tends to use it indiscriminately.”
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Forward
“Green cards can be revoked if the permanent resident commits certain crimes… But neither the government nor his detractors have given any actual evidence that he’s materially supported Hamas, or even that he’s so much as said anything supportive of the organization. Instead, they are recklessly stretching that definition to charge that his antiwar activism is tantamount to giving money to or working on behalf of Hamas…
“A permanent resident has been effectively disappeared by the government, had his legal status revoked, and is set to be thrown out of the country, without trial or any sort of due process at the whim of those in power. It is only a step away from saying you can do something like this to a permanent resident to saying you can do it to a citizen, as long as those citizens meet certain requirements of one person’s definition of non-Americanness.”
Branko Marcetic, Jacobin Magazine
“If it is allowed to stand, what stops the Trump administration from detaining and ultimately expelling permanent residents who support any cause it does not like?…
“Any permanent resident — a German who protests American climate policy, a Nigerian who marches against police violence targeting Black people, a Spaniard advocating trans rights — would have to think carefully before exercising the constitutionally protected right to free speech.”
Lydia Polgreen, New York Times
The right generally supports the administration’s actions, arguing that they are necessary to combat antisemitism.
The right generally supports the administration’s actions, arguing that they are necessary to combat antisemitism.
“This movement was never merely about protest: Ever since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks, it has sought to intimidate America with passion and force — occupying campus quads, blockading and/or rampaging through libraries, harassing and assaulting visible Jews. Nor is it truly a student movement: As arrest records show, even actions on campus include gobs of older ‘career’ radicals, often leading the worst excesses…
“Yet far too many campus authorities have done as little as possible to stop it, hiding behind ‘free speech’ concerns that plainly don’t cover this behavior… Now the Trump administration has begun to hold academia to account for its failings, as well as acting directly against those like Mahmoud Khalil who abuse America’s welcome to foster violent hate. This is both a defense of decency and a push against the perversion of privilege, and we look forward to seeing a lot more of it.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
“If all the ‘protesters’ had done was stand outside waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans, no one would be talking about deportation… The arrest represents a huge change in the status quo and marks the Trump administration’s determination to address the inability—or unwillingness—of elite universities to maintain the basics of civilized behavior…
“The administration has caught the academy’s attention in a way nothing before has. ‘We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff,’ the university said. It might as well have said: We understand how serious this is now that it threatens to stop the federal gravy train.”
William McGurn, Wall Street Journal
“Khalil was accused by the university of ‘organizing an event that glorified Hamas’s October 7 attack.’… It need not be provable in criminal court that an alien agitator committed crimes in order to establish that the alien should be deported… If the government can prove that Khalil was in a campus group that endorsed or espoused Hamas’s atrocities against Israel, it should be able to deport him regardless of his [permanent resident] status. And if it can deport him, there are likely to be thousands of others who can be deported, too — and should be.”
Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review
Some argue, “The operative question here is not whether Khalil’s arrest is lawful: The federal government has extensive latitude to expel visa- or green card-holding noncitizens if it deems their presence contrary to the national interest. Instead, the question is whether Khalil and others like him deserve to be arrested and expelled for the reason that Khalil was arrested and will be expelled…
“This arrest is plainly contradictory to the interest of vigorous public debate on a matter of public interest. It will surely deter American students who do not support Hamas but oppose Israeli foreign policy from speaking their minds. That is incompatible with the founders’ intent in their construction of the First Amendment. It undermines the fundamental American principle that speech should be tolerated as far as possible.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
“There is some ambiguity under current precedent about the issue of whether non-citizens can be deported for speech. That ambiguity should be resolved against deportation. There is also, tragically, a long history of speech-based restrictions on immigration and entry into the US. The Trump Administration cites 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(3), which bars ‘Any alien who … endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.’…
“Such laws, too, should be ruled unconstitutional. There is no immigration-restriction exception to the First Amendment. In addition to legal issues, there are also good moral and policy reasons to oppose deportation for speech. If freedom of speech - including speech that promotes awful viewpoints - is a fundamental human right, there is no good reason to exempt migrants or foreign students from that principle.”
Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy
