ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/09/ice-arrests-palestinian-activist-columbia-protests

by n1b0m • 1 year ago

141 120 1 year ago

theguardian.com

the_mitsuhiko2• 1 year ago

who claimed they were acting on a state department order to revoke his green card, according to his attorney

I thought green cards can only be revoked in rather limited circumstances. What is he accused of?

sour-taste2• 1 year ago

It says it in the title, he's Palestinian. Nevermind that it's likely illegal, we don't live in a world where that matters any more.

easytiger3• 1 year ago

The title does not say that

matthewdgreen2• 1 year ago

To be very clear, we do live in a world where the distinction between legal and illegal, right and wrong, matters. And we will always live in that world.

Not to pick a fight with you. It obviously does not matter to the people running this administration, I agree with you.

easytiger3• 1 year ago

Making statements in support of or in support of the actions of a proscribed terrorist group.

the_mitsuhiko2• 1 year ago

And that is enough to revoke a green card of someone married to a US citizen?

jsheard• 1 year ago

What statements did they make in support of Hamas or their actions? Forgive me for not taking that claim at face value given that literally any pro-Palestinian speech, no matter how measured, tends to get conflated with support for terrorism and/or anti-semitism. Even something as benign as wearing a keffiyeh in solidarity, which the ADLs CEO likened to wearing a swastika.

Cyph0n3• 1 year ago

Allegedly.

The government - through the Biden and Trump admins - has been testing out the limits of student repression with pro-Palestine protestors. Think of it as a pilot program for seeing what they can get away with. As we have seen elsewhere, violent shutdown of university protests is one early step on the path towards more widespread repression.

It is fine to not care, but don’t start crying for support once your cause is on the gov’s radar.

ever1337• 1 year ago

This isn't the UK

duxup4• 1 year ago

Is being a "Palestinian activist" that?

danielmarkbruce12• 1 year ago

Supporting a terrorist organization is legal grounds. Section 237 of the INA.

heartbreak2• 1 year ago

Which judge ruled on his case? I can’t seem to find it.

tgma3• 1 year ago

Since the administration specifically brought up "Department of State" as one of the entities that helped with the effort, my guess is the action is founded on this specific statue, not the "terrorist support" piece in particular, despite the latter being the widespread speculation:

8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(3)(C)(i) "An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable"

This provision basically lets Secretary of State to deport any alien he deems in the future might post a threat to foreign policy. It does not appear to be a difficult standard to justify either and gives Secretary of State broad leeways in deportation of all aliens, including LPRs. That said, I am not sure it even technically constitutes "revocation" of green card. They seem to be able to simply deport you with a green card without needing the procedural burden of revocation.

All the other provisions outlined for cancelation seem to involve DHS (incl. USCIS) and Attorney General to cancels one's green card, and would not really be in purview of Dept. of State.

Aeolun5• 1 year ago

If that is that statute Trump is deporting him over, that’s both hilarious and extremely sad at the same time.

I doubt there is any single person in US history that has been more damaging to foreign relations.

bananapub• 1 year ago

headline is misleading, as far as anyone can tell he's been kidnapped, not arrested. allegedly, they:

- follow him in to his home

- refuse to identify themselves

- tell him his green card has been cancelled

- tell his wife they'll kidnap her too if she intervenes

- takes him somewhere

- won't tell anyone where he is, including his (8 month pregnant) wife and lawyer

allegedly they have done this because he's been loudly critical of the policies of a foreign government, which as everyone knows, is not a crime. as everyone also knows, random feds can't just kidnap you even if they think you have committed an actual crime.

morkalork• 1 year ago

Last week it was reported by Axios that Secretary of State Marco Rubio intends to revoke visas from foreign nationals who are deemed to support Hamas or other terrorist groups, using artificial intelligence (AI) to pick out individuals [on social media]

Yikes. Once the government has built that infrastructure and pipeline from monitoring to arrest, you think they won't use it for other kinds of dissent?

Cyph0n3• 1 year ago

Of course they won’t /s

throw310822• 1 year ago

you think they won't use it for other kinds of dissent?

Why, isn't using it for this kind of dissent already enough? There's no freedom of speech anymore in the US if you go against the interests of Israel.

JumpCrisscross12• 1 year ago

Why, isn't using it for this kind of dissent already enough?

We don’t know if he materially supported Hamas. At that point it’s no longer just a speech issue.

We will eventually know the government is full of bunk. But that takes time. In the meantime, I think all we can do is note who is jumping to conclusions with incomplete information and who is prescient about objective facts (not forecasts).

Aeolun5• 1 year ago

I don’t understand this btw. What does the US gain from supporting Israel? Is it just buying cheap votes with public money?

daanlo• 1 year ago

If you are based in the US, you should protest this hard.

In Germany, they came for the communists first.

https://hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin...

92834092324• 1 year ago

Network state in full swing.

refurb• 1 year ago

That infrastructure has always existed. The law 9 FAM 302.6 lays out grounds for inadmissibility.

It’s similar to the laws that prevent former Nazi regime members from immigrating to the US.

As a non-citizen, you are held to more strict standards as to your conduct. Every country does this.

danielmarkbruce12• 1 year ago

I was a non-citizen for years and felt I should hold myself to stricter conduct standards - not just for legal reasons but also moral ones. You don't ask to come into someones house and then complain about the cooking or start giving unsolicited advice on interior decorating.

92834092324• 1 year ago

I don't think they believe they can revoke his green card and deport it. If they actually can then they'll do it but what they want are the headlines and the fear.

danielmarkbruce12• 1 year ago

If you hold a green card and support an organization which has been deemed a terrorist organization by the US government, you are taking a giant risk and are quite likely to be deported (legally). Section 237 of INA explicitly calls it out.

Most green card holders will tell you they feel like a guest in the country. Getting involved in protests and supporting organizations on the terror list etc seems rather silly...

archagon• 1 year ago

Did Mahmoud Khalil actually speak out in support of Hamas?

danielmarkbruce12• 1 year ago

No idea.

latentcall2• 1 year ago

Pro-Palestinian is the same thing as pro-Hamas according to AIPAC and the administration. So according to them, yes. According to logical peoples, no,

spwa410• 1 year ago

Yes. And he was an organizer and negotiator at the student protests where people got attacked.

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/city-news/2024/04/24/i-am-...

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/30/24145737/columbia-suspend...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68923528

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/columbia-stalemate-cont...

https://nypost.com/2024/04/26/us-news/the-extremist-student-...

And if you want to have a fight about technicalities, you're both wrong. He didn't describe himself as either pro-Hamas or pro-Palestinian. He described the protests as anti-Israel ...

As anti-Israel's existence, to be exact, not anti-Israel's actions in Gaza or anywhere else.

mcphage2• 1 year ago

quite likely to be deported (legally)

And is that what happened?

danielmarkbruce12• 1 year ago

Don't know.

loeg• 1 year ago

Yes.

esalman2• 1 year ago

You can argue that you take a giant risk being born Palestinian and coming to US.

Aeolun5• 1 year ago

Not as much as you take being born Palestinian and staying there.

spwa410• 1 year ago

(he also organized and financed protests where people got attacked and hurt, including Jewish students, who got attacked and hurt - for being Jewish)

theahura2• 1 year ago

This is relevant if they can show that he was deemed to be supporting a terrorist organization, which of course would require him to show up in court and would require the government to defend their decision. They have done neither, and have instead moved him over 1000 miles from his lawyers without telling them

ok123456• 1 year ago

It was wrong when we deported Rosa Luxemburg for perfectly legal speech; this is wrong now.

torstenvl• 1 year ago

Not only not-wrong, but morally necessary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Society_and_Its_Enemi...

bloomingkales2• 1 year ago

How we can we help him get proper legal help and awareness on a regular basis? Is HN beyond sticky threads? Seems like society in general is, but ... we need sticky threads at this point.

OgsyedIE• 1 year ago

We could assess whether there are any big organizations separate to Hn and engaged on this issue already that could do with support, instead of needlessly duplicating their efforts.

bloomingkales2• 1 year ago

Well I guess this is the donation for the month: https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rig...

Cyph0n3• 1 year ago

ADC is one organization that usually supports such cases. Here is their press release on this: https://adc.org/adc-condemns-ice-targeting-of-columbia-unive...

theahura2• 1 year ago

Supposedly they moved him to Louisiana after and in response to habeaus corpus being filed by his lawyers (https://bsky.app/profile/chrisgeidner.bsky.social/post/3lk2k...) which is, of course, incredibly alarming.

For those who aren't familiar, habeas corpus is an incredibly important civil right that effectively allows anyone who is detained to go to court to challenge the detention. Khalil's lawyers state that after they filed for habeas corpus, ICE moved Khalil to Lousiana without telling anyone. Extremely concerning.

jakeinspace• 1 year ago

My understanding of the relevant law and legal precedent is that since revoking a green card and deporting someone is not technically a criminal penalty, it may be constitutional for the government to so. Reno vs AADC went to SCOTUS in 1999, and that was roughly the ruling, although it's unclear how much of a precedent that sets, because the lower court's ruling was rejected due to lack of jurisdiction.

Even if that is considered settled (which, personally, I find a pretty lousy interpretation of the first amendment), it would still make this arrest and detention totally illegal, at least warranting a lawsuit, even if deportation can't be avoided.

Hopefully I'm wrong. This whole thing is so destructive to the constitution, to personal liberties, and to higher education.

kennysoona• 1 year ago

He has a green card, he is protected by the First Amendment.

It's not more complicated than that.

etc-hosts3• 1 year ago

reminds me of the guys who went to (and are still in) jail for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Land_Foundation_for_Relie...

ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says

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