One week after federal agents abducted Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for leading last year’s student protests at Columbia University ― and sparking nationwide anger over free speech rights ― Secretary of State Marco Rubio still refuses to say whether the government even has any evidence to legally justify revoking the man’s green card and deporting him.
Khalil remains detained in Louisiana as of Sunday, a week after plainclothes federal immigration agents arrested him without a warrant while he was coming back to his university-owned apartment with his pregnant wife, who recorded the interaction. The Columbia graduate’s lawyers are working to get him transferred back to New York City.
Rubio has admitted to revoking Khalil’s green card because of his role peacefully negotiating with Columbia’s administration on behalf of the students nonviolently protesting Israel’s U.S.-funded military campaign against Palestinians. The secretary equated the anti-war protests with antisemitism and support for Hamas, an excuse that many Jewish protesters have called bullshit.
“Negotiating on behalf of people that took over a campus, that vandalized buildings? Negotiation over what?” the secretary told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “That’s a crime in and of itself, that they’re involved in being the negotiator, the spokesperson, this that the other. We don’t need these people in our country. We never should have allowed them in in the first place.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with reporters following the G7 foreign ministers meeting in La Malbaie, Quebec, on March 14. Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Khalil has no criminal history, and has not been charged with a crime in this incident. The White House itself said that Khalil’s green card should be revoked because he organized student protests, not because he has committed a crime.
Rubio defended Khalil’s treatment over the past week by citing a rarely-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which vaguely states that the federal government can deport someone if the secretary of state personally believes there are “reasonable grounds” to infer their presence “would have potentially serious foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
On Sunday, Rubio could not provide any evidence that would prove Khalil supports Hamas and therefore is eligible for deportation.
“Can you substantiate any form of material support for terrorism, specifically to Hamas, from this Columbia student?” asked host Margaret Brennan. “Or was it just he espoused a controversial political point of view?”
“We’re gonna do more. In fact, every day now we’re approving visa revocations ― and if that visa led to a green card, the green card process as well,” Rubio said, not answering the question.
When Brennan asked twice more if there is any evidence linking Khalil to terrorism, or whether his arrest is just based on his point of view, Rubio told the journalist she should “watch the news.”
“If you are in this country to promote Hamas, to promote terrorist organizations, to participate in vandalism, to participate in acts of rebellion and riots on campus, we never would have let you in if we’d known that,” he said. “And now that we know, you’re gonna leave.”
Pro-Palestinian activists participate in a “Fight for our Rights” rally in support of Mahmoud Khalil, in New York’s Times Square on Saturday. Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images
Everyone in the U.S. is covered by the Constitution, including visa holders and permanent residents like Khalil. The activist’s lawyers say his detention violates his First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights, and supporters who have protested daily for his release say that this opens the gates for the Trump administration to continue weaponizing immigration and higher education to crush constitutionally protected free speech.
Rubio’s comments on Sunday are just the latest in administration officials dodging questions about what specific terror-supporting actions Khalil committed to justify green card revocation and deportation. Troy Edgar, the Department of Homeland Security’s deputy secretary, was grilled about the issue for five minutes Thursday by an NPR reporter.
When NPR’s Michel Martin asked what specific terrorist activity Khalil was supporting, Edgar said the activist was “agitating and supporting Hamas.” When Martin asked how exactly Khalil supported Hamas,” Edgar said, “I think you can see it on TV, right?”
Edgar did not directly answer whether it is a deportable offense if someone is criticizing or protesting Israel or the U.S. government.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) described Khalil as the “mastermind” of last year’s protests, but could not say what specific crimes the activist committed that would justify deportation.
