Why Mahmoud Khalil's Deportation is Legal

In today's episode, Dominique revisits President Trump's Executive Order entitled "Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats," in light of recent news and the controversy surrounding the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil. This executive order ensures that visa holders, including student visa holders, are vetted and punished for hostile attitudes toward U.S. citizens, the U.S. government, and institutions (including American universities). Additionally, visa holders who support designated terrorists that undermine U.S. security will be found in violation of their visa requirements and could be deported. 

The big controversy surrounds Khalil's immigration status as a "green card" holder, which affords him more protection than a student visa holder. However, the Trump administration has argued that Khalil is still in violation of his immigration status with his leadership in pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah activism on Colombia's campus. He is currently being detained in an ICE detention center in Louisiana as he awaits legal proceedings next week in New York.

The detainment of Khalil was followed by additional on-campus searches of two other Colombian students' homes, which might hint at a more extensive DHS investigation into the encampments and ties to terrorists in the Middle East. This detainment comes on the heels of the Trump administration canceling $400 million in federal grants to Colombia for violating its mandate to protect Jewish students following October 7th. Since October 7th, pro-Palestinian groups and Columbia campus faculty have embarked on a campaign to harass and intimate Jewish individuals.

Khalil's detention is a costly message to foreign campus protestors. It is a big win for the fight to protect students across American universities, which, following October 7th, became ground zero in the cultural and political debate surrounding the Israel-Gaza war. Foreign students who are privileged to learn in America will no longer be empowered to support Hamas, a growing trend on the ideological neo-Marxist Left (common on university campuses). To read the executive order, click the link below and check out our other podcast episodes surrounding the advocacy and ideology driving the social justice movements of American universities.