Trump judge shopped and had Khalil sent to Louisiana. The first few paragraphs.

A Louisiana immigration judge ruled Friday that activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported.

Khalil, who as a Columbia University graduate student led pro-Palestinian protests there last year, was detained last month after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had determined that Khalil’s activism was antisemitic and that allowing him to remain in the country would undermine a U.S. foreign policy goal of combatting antisemitism around the world.

During a hearing at the remote Louisiana detention center where Khalil is being held, Judge Jamee Comans said she had no authority to question Rubio’s determination.

After the ruling, Khalil told the judge, "I would like to quote what you said last time that there’s nothing that’s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness. Clearly what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process.

“This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family,” he added. “I just hope that the urgency that you deemed fit for me are afforded to the hundreds of others who have been here without hearing for months.”

Khalil will not immediately be deported. His attorneys have said that if he were ordered deported, they would appeal the judge’s ruling. Comans gave Khalil until April 23 to request a stay of his deportation if his attorneys believe he qualifies for one. And the judge said if they don’t meet that deadline, she will order him deported either to Syria, where he was born, or to Algeria, where he is a citizen.

  • dead [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    1·
    15 days ago

    I think people are really underestimating the significance of this case. Mahmoud Khalil was not on a student visa. He is a permanent US resident, married to US-born citizen. Marco Rubio himself said that they are deporting his because Mahmoud Khalil’s beliefs do not align with US foreign policy. This seems like the start of a new Red Scare, probably even worse. There is no free speech in America.

  • Preston Maness ☭@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    1·
    15 days ago

    Khalil, who has a green card, is a lawful permanent resident. In ordering Khalil’s deportation, Rubio relied on a rarely used federal statute from the 1950s that played a major role in shaping American immigration during the Cold War. The McCarran-Walter Act, or the Immigration Nationality Act of 1952, gives the secretary of state authority to decide that a noncitizen’s presence in the United States threatens the country’s foreign policy goals. [emphasis added]

    I think it’s telling that, 30 years since the Cold War’s conclusion, news outlets are still steering clear of describing what the war was actually fighting against: socialism. The statute was developed during the second Red Scare and was an outgrowth of McCarthyism, a series of anti-communist witch hunts. 30 years later, the mass media are still Inventing Reality.

  • Archangel@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    15 days ago

    This is so stupid. Since when does US foreign policy overrule the 1st amendment? The government is literally penalizing this man over his speech.

    • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netMEnglish
      2·
      15 days ago

      The entire political system of the United States is founded on the assumption that it shall rule as the undisputed global hegemon. Absolutely nothing is off the table if the alternative is losing that position. It has spent the past century murdering dissidents at home and destroying countries abroad to maintain this position.

      Israel is considered by the powers that be to be an indispensable pillar of this global system. An “unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Middle East” (their words). The ability to destroy any counter-hegemonic developments in west Asia while defending the most detestable (but more importantly, loyal) monarchical regimes is worth more to them than any pretext of civil liberties or small-r republicanism, even domestically. It is the key to maintaining global military logistics, the petro-dollar system, and preventing the Chinese Belt and Road initiative from reaching Europe.

      • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netMEnglish
        1·
        15 days ago

        The well-known phrase “Shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theatre” originates from the US Supreme Court case, Schenck v. United States, which determined (unanimously) to uphold a conviction for distributing anti-war pamphlets during the first World War.

        The irony is that the theatre (Europe) actually was on fire. Over 17 million people died.