When the federal immigration judge Jamee COMANS ruled in favor By authorizing the government to expel Mahmoud Khalil, a student from the University of Columbia and a legal permanent resident, his decision was based on “foreign policy concerns” presented by the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. It was so shocking that I had to reread the report several times before I could believe it.
Rubio’s claim is based on the role of Khalil leadership in anti-Israeli demonstrations at Columbia University. I do not agree with Khalil’s policy when he led the demonstrations and I do not agree today with his policy, or even his actions during the demonstrations. But I am unshakable to support his right to his opinions, and his right to shout them in what, until Trump takes the reins, was our free American nation.
As an immigration judge, COMANS could not make a constitutional decision. Immigration judges are not really part of the government’s judicial branch; They are part of the executive power and, as such, do not decide on constitutional issues but only on questions of immigration law. Consequently, it is likely – and full of hope – that, for an additional appeal, the constitutional right of Khalil to freedom of expression could be maintained, although less likely than it would have been before the weakening of our constitutional fiber under Trump.
Since Rubio recently argued that non-citizens, even if here, can be expelled if they undermine the objectives of American foreign policy, the administration has taken more intimidating measures. Today, visa holders and American visitors find that their social media are examined and their phones taken on the border for research.
As soon as he entered into office, Rubio was a weak link to preserve national interest, justifying a range of abuses under the cover of American foreign policy. He has fully crouched under Trump’s heavy arm, returning many of his beliefs before, from support to Ukraine to use gentle aid via USAID, and generally in the promotion of American values. As a child of parents who came to the United States as the emigrant of Cuba of Fidel Castro, he has once adopted democracy with as much bravado as he now displays to help flow.
To assert that one of the reasons for an expulsion as this is to stop anti-Semitism, as the State Department says, is really a cunning to obtain support for the enlargement of the attack on freedom of expression and the universities of the campus. This certainly does not make Jewish students safer. On the contrary, divide and conquer to strip higher education and freedom of expression of their very essences endangers each group which has relied on the guarantee of the first amendment.
It also seems laughable to me that the secretary claims that Khalil’s presence in the United States affects the objectives of American foreign policy. After all, As I wrote here last weekWhat is the American foreign policy in particular with regard to the Middle East? There is no diplomacy and there is no goal of foreign policy, unless you consider Trump’s dream to build hotel-cassinos on the beaches of Gaza as a formal American policy.
As Benjamin Netanyahu discovered himself when he went to the White House this week, Trump had nothing to offer him. The Israeli Prime Minister came to the begging of the prices and a green light for having continued his war against Hamas, as well as a even brighter green light to bomb Iran. He was shocked when Trump announced during their joint press that he would send to his advisor Steve Witkoff to discuss a peace agreement between the United States and Iran. Netanyahu returned to his house empty -handed on the prices and amazed Trump’s sudden diving in talks with Iran.
But of course, neither the Hotels of Gaza Beach nor, above all, the deportations of visa holders concern foreign policy. Everything is about domestic policy; The real objective is to set up various groups of Americans against each other. THE Memo disseminated by Rubio Argues that “although Khalil’s activities are otherwise legal”, its presence in the United States would harm the efforts of those which implemented “American policy to combat anti-Semitism in the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students against harassment and violence in the United States”.
Rubio continued by claiming that “the tolerance of anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would seriously undermine this objective of significant foreign policy”.
What does that even mean? The same day that Khalil’s freedom had remained under construction, Witkoff, the White House advisor, had a four -hour meeting with Vladimir Putin, one of the main suppliers of anti -Semitism in the world today. What is the plan of this administration to combat anti -Semitism worldwide? There is none, of course.
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At the national level, the President’s plan seems not only to divide and conquer, but also to weaken and even paralyze the institutions of higher education, the arts and other critical foundations of democracy which keep the American Jews – and all the minorities – in security. Worse, it is a question of trying simultaneously to go, American Jews, accomplices of his bad relationships.
The training effect of this decision and the detention of other students, such as Rümeysa Öztürk from Tufts University, propel many of us in the American Jewish community to act against the Trump administration. A new Amicus brief By a coalition of 27 Jewish organizations, supported by a pro bono work of the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine (a company that deserves a gold star to maintain our constitution, rather than making side agreements with the president to crush him), says this: without presupping to speak for all of Jewish America – a diversified community that holds a multitude of points of view – friendship are obliged to deposit this thesis because the arrest, the detention and the potential deportation of Rümeysa Öztürk for his protected speech violates the most fundamental constitutional rights. »»
Freedom of expression, in particular on issues of public concern, the memory clearly indicates, is a cornerstone of American democracy and extends to academic circles and discourse on campus. I am proud to say that my synagogue, the Beth Elohim congregation, in Brooklyn, is a signatory of the memory, as well as an organization, new Jewish accounts, where I sit on the board of directors.
Tonight is starting the Jewish Passover festival, a Festival of Liberation and Liberty. This marks a journey that the former Jews who were slaves in Egypt made bondage to freedom. This is a time when Jews around the world proclaim: “Leave my people”, because we see our own fight for freedom in the eyes of those who remain unlike. For me, the release of Israeli hostages is at the heart of the Passover message, just like the freedom of the Palestinian people and the Israelis to live in a state where they are free of fear and have a dynamic democracy.
It is a dynamic democracy that I also want for the United States. And, at my Passover table, I will undertake to fight to maintain and strengthen the ties of all peoples here in the United States towards the collective action which defends and maintains our democracy. If Khalil’s right to stay in the United States is not maintained, our nation will be lower for this and all our rights will be more endangered.
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Died Jo-AnnWho writes and reports frequently on Israel / Palestine, is also the author of the next poetry book, a specific chaos. Follow it @ jo-ann.bsky.social
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This article was modified on April 12, 2025. A previous version described Khalil as being under a legal visa rather than a legal permanent resident.