The White House on Tuesday defended President Donald Trump's deportation policy after the weekend arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and U.S. legal permanent resident, who played a prominent role in last year's university protests over the Gaza war.
White House officials echoed Trump's vow on Monday to "find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again."
Trump doubled down on his language on Tuesday.
"We ought to get them all out of the country," he said. "They're troublemakers. They're agitators. They don't love our country. We ought to get them the hell out."
Khalil, who remained in detention Tuesday, has not been charged with any criminal offense. It is not a criminal offense to disagree, even openly, with the U.S. government's policy or actions, and the Bill of Rights protects free speech and the right to assemble.
"This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda fliers with the logo of Hamas," said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. "That is the behavior and activity that this individual engaged in."
According to the U.S. government database that tracks immigration arrests, a man by the name of Mahmoud Khalil, who is listed as being born in Syria, is being held in an ICE facility in rural Louisiana. Khalil was a student at Columbia University in New York City and a prominent figure during last year's protests at the university.
Trump also promised, in his Monday social media post, that more arrests would come. When asked how many more, Leavitt did not provide a number.
"But I do know that DHS is actively working on it," she replied. "And I also know that Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity, and they are refusing to help DHS identify those individuals on campus, and as the president said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going to tolerate that, and we expect, expect all America's colleges and universities to comply with this administration's policy."
Last week, the U.S. government announced the immediate cancellation of about $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, due, they said, "to the school's continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."
'Step in the right direction'
In a statement, the Heritage Foundation, whose Project 2025 document has effectively become a policy playbook for the Trump administration, praised both the move to defund and Khalil's arrest, saying, in a headline, "Heritage Praises Trump Administration's Decision to Defund Columbia University, Arrest Pro-Hamas Student Leader."
"This is a great step in the right direction," said the foundation's Jason Bedrick, a researcher on education policy. "For far too long, universities like Columbia have allowed radicals to engage in targeted harassment of Jewish students, incite violence, openly support terrorist organizations, and break campus policies with impunity."
'Straight from the authoritarian playbook'
On Capitol Hill, Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin said the arrest was a violation of Khalil's First Amendment rights. Raskin said he was "closely monitoring" the situation.
While Leavitt said Tuesday that the secretary of state has the authority to revoke a person's Permanent Resident Card, also known as a green card, over issues of national security, critics question the legality of such a move.
"The detention of Mahmoud Khalil is ripped straight from the authoritarian playbook," said Raskin, a constitutional law professor, in a statement. "His arrest sets an extremely dangerous and chilling precedent from an administration that is hellbent on wielding fear and intimidation as weapons to crush political dissent. All Americans, including those who strongly disagree with Khalil's speech, should be outraged by this brazen attack on our fundamental freedoms."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations told VOA via email that they are comforted by a judge's decision to block Khalil's deportation.
"What ultimately happens to Mahmoud may set a precedent for countless other lawful permanent residents and possibly even American citizens targeted in this anti-American war on free speech and peaceful activism," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR national deputy director. "Free speech for everyone in our nation, including lawful permanent residents, is a cornerstone of American democracy."
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee told VOA via email that this case prompts many questions.
"They are constantly moving the goalposts on what is antisemitism and what isn't," National Executive Director Abed Ayoub told VOA. "There is no proof Mahmoud committed a crime. What is the statutory authority they are using? What about the [First Amendment]? How far is the administration going with this? Will they be targeting naturalized U.S. citizens? These seem like obvious questions, but they haven't been asked."
U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman on Monday ordered that Khalil not be deported for now and set his next hearing for Wednesday.
