What do you all think about this story with Mahmoud Khalil?

[Husseinisdoingfine]

Mahmoud Khalil is a 29 year old graduate student of Columbia University who was detained by immigration authorities and is most likely to be deported. He was arrested because of his involvement in coordinating the 2023 Palestine demonstrations, and is being accused of promoting terrorism and specifically supporting Hamas. 

He is most likely to be deported for the following reasons:

 

1. Legal permanent residents are still aliens subject to 8 USC 1182 and 8 USC 1227, and thus explicitly deportable for any speech expressing support for designated terrorist organizations or statutorily defined “terrorist activities,” as well as deportable for foreign policy grounds at the sole determination of the Secretary of State and/or AG. These are not crimes, but they don’t have to be. They are removal grounds under 8 USC 1182 and 8 USC 1227. No criminal conviction is required to remove aliens. IF a crime is committed, it can serve as grounds for removal, but no allegation of criminal misconduct is necessary.

2. ⁠No due process has been denied. He is entitled to a basic statement that he is being detained and subject to removal proceedings, and he got one, and he’s entitled to a removal hearing before being deported, and he’ll get one.

3. ⁠He is not missing. The ICE detention database, available to the public, clearly lists that he is in a detention facility in Louisiana.

4. ⁠These actions are not being done in the name of “Jewish safety.” They are being done on the basis of expressing support for terrorism organizations or activities and on foreign policy grounds which is the prerogative of the Secretary of State and/or AG.

5. ⁠Separately, though no crime of “material” support of terrorism (or any other crime) is legally necessary to deport an alien, his distribution of pamphlets with Hamas iconography and language is “material” support (producing and distributing documents is legally considered material support — just like other forms of “material” support like direct financial assistance).

6. ⁠This is an open-and-shut case. At the removal hearing, the government will recite the above, and the judge will affirm that these recitations have been made. On the “foreign policy” grounds of 8 USC 1227 alone, Mahmoud Kahlil is deportable and the government’s declaration that his presence is contrary to foreign policy is non-reviewable. The judge is not entitled to second-guess this; the judge can only require that this invocation be made by the government, and indeed, this invocation will be made.

 

I am not at all supporting his deportation, but these unfortunately are the legal facts.

[DocWatts]

Here's Legal Eagle's take on Mahmoud Khalil (plus a second vid on Trump's defying the courts to send American citizens off to gulags in El Salvador with no due process)

Seems to me that this is a pretty open and shut case of Lawfare - the weaponization of the law, by maliciously using it a highly selective way to punish dissent and oppress political opponents. This is standard stuff of authoritarian regimes such as Putin's Russia, which Trump and his sycophants are working to to import into America.

The use of literacy tests and poll taxes in the Jim Crow South is another example of laws that were technically 'neutral' on paper, but were selectively enforced to deny black Americans their political rights.

The context in which this is happening matters - the aim here is to terrify protesters, clamp down on dissent, and intimidate the American public into obeying in advance. How anyone can claim that any of this is 'above board' when Trump is simultaneously using of ICE as his personal Gestapo to send American citizens to for-profit gulags in El Salvador is beyond me. Keep in mind that this is coming just weeks after Trump gave a blanket pardon to all of the January 6th insurrectionists.

In short - you can't just look at Laws are written on paper, you have to factor in the broader context in which they're being applied and enforced.
 

 

Edited March 21 by DocWatts

[Lyubov]

Easy targets to punch down on. I could see them using this as warm up and then trying to mess with the opposition using bizarre laws and strange and twisted interpretations, for example claiming anyone protesting is in violation of the whatthefuckisthisshit act of 1901. Twist stuff and clog up the courts. It's a good way to cause more grid lock and confusion and it can tie up government resources.