from the thought-police-bullshit dept
The Trump administration has just claimed an astounding new power: the ability to deport lawful permanent residents based on their “expected beliefs” (including perfectly “lawful” expected beliefs). This isn’t speculation or hyperbole — it’s the explicit thought-police justification Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave in immigration court documents for trying to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and green card holder. This attempted expansion of government authority to police thought should alarm anyone who cares about civil liberties, due process, or the rule of law.
As a reminder, Khalil is a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) in the US and a student at Columbia University in New York. While he was involved in some pro-Palestinian demonstrations, MAGA world has falsely labeled him a “Hamas supporter.” I’ve yet to see any evidence that actually supports that claim, but MAGA isn’t exactly known for accuracy in their accusations. Even worse, when ICE showed up at his student housing to arrest him (in front of his pregnant, US citizen wife), they told him his “visa” was being revoked.
Except he doesn’t have a visa. He holds a green card, which makes him a completely lawful permanent resident in the US. ICE then told him his green card was also revoked, which isn’t something they could actually do. Since then, there’s been a lot of obnoxious game playing by Homeland Security playing “hide the guy we kidnapped,” before dumping him in Louisiana and seeking to deport him.
There are multiple legal proceedings going on with respect to Khalil’s future in the US, with the main one taking place in a federal court in New Jersey. But down in Louisiana there’s a separate legal process in front of an “immigration judge,” which is not an Article III judge or a part of the judiciary at all. Rather it’s someone who works for the DOJ reviewing immigration issues.
For a brief moment last week, it looked like even this DOJ employee was perplexed as to why Khalil had been taken and why the US was trying to deport him. Immigration Judge Jamee Comans ordered DHS to give some reason for why Khalil was detained and why they were trying to deport him.
At a hearing, Judge Jamee Comans gave the federal government 24 hours to turn over its evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident and prominent pro-Palestinian activist, said Marc Van Der Hout, one of Khalil’s attorneys, who attended the hearing.
“The government has not produced a single shred of evidence to date to support any of its allegations or charges in this case including its outrageous position that Mahmoud’s mere presence and activities in this country have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” Van Der Hout said.
The next day, the government finally produced the “evidence” and to say it is underwhelming is quite the understatement. They released a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio with a bunch of vague claims, including that he could single-handedly kick green card holders out of the country based on their “expected beliefs” even if they are perfectly “lawful.”
If you can’t read that screenshot, it says:
Under INA section 237(a) (4) (C)(i), an alien is deportable from the United States if the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe that the alien’s presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States. Under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(ii), for cases in which the basis for this determination is the alien’s past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful, the Secretary of State must personally determine that the alien’s presence or activities would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.
This document should forever define Marco Rubio’s legacy. As Secretary of State, he has personally put his name on a legal claim that the government can deport lawful residents based on beliefs they might hold in the future — even if those beliefs would be perfectly legal. This isn’t just standard immigration enforcement overreach — it’s an attempt to establish thought-police powers that would make Orwell blush. And Rubio didn’t just sign off on this theory — he’s actively championing it, apparently seeing no problem with claiming the power to exile people based on what he thinks they might someday believe.
For anyone keeping score at home: when MAGA supporters inevitably start ranting about Democrats wanting to police speech and thought, remember that Rubio’s the one who officially claimed the power to deport legal residents based on “expected beliefs.” That should be carved into his political tombstone.
Also: fuck that fascist bullshit.
The other part of the document claims that it was done based on the “policy” of the US to fight antisemitism and to protect Jews, but fuck that as well. It’s clearly bullshit. This is the same administration that has said the Naval Academy library had to remove books about the Holocaust, while leaving Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf on the shelves. This is the same administration that hired into a top position someone with a long history of blatantly antisemitic conspiracy theories popular in neo-Nazi circles. This administration’s claims of fighting antisemitism appear to be pretty antisemitic itself, using false claims of wanting to “protect” Jews to actually make Jews targets of more hatred.
This isn’t about “a compelling foreign policy interest” by the Secretary State. This is about a fucking insecure coward in the form of Marco Rubio, who has been given power by Donald Trump and is using the position to destroy lives because that’s what insecure fascists do.
Tragically, in this case, that was enough for DOJ employee Judge Jamee Comans, who said that was enough of a justification to bless Khalil’s deportation.
An immigration judge in Louisiana found on Friday that the Trump administration could deport Mahmoud Khalil, granting the government an early victory in its efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses.
Again, this is only the first stage in a multi-stage process involving separate federal court proceedings in New Jersey as well, and even in front of the immigration judge the situation isn’t over. Khalil’s lawyers can still argue that he shouldn’t be deported to this same judge (leaving aside the constitutional issues that will show up in the New Jersey case).
Here, Comans admitted during the hearing that she was unable to look the larger constitutional issues:
Immigration judges are employees of the executive branch, not the judiciary, and often approve the Homeland Security Department’s deportation efforts. It would be unusual for such a judge, serving the U.S. Attorney General, to grapple with the constitutional questions raised by Mr. Khalil’s case. She would also run the risk of being fired by an administration that has targeted dissenters.
“This court is without jurisdiction to entertain challenges to the validity of this law under the Constitution,” Judge Comans said as she delivered her ruling, apparently reading from a written statement.
She denied Mr. Khalil’s lawyers’ requests that they be allowed to cross-examine or depose Mr. Rubio so that he could elaborate on his claims. “This court is neither inclined or authorized” to compel such testimony, she said.
Khalil himself highlighted the fundamental absurdity of these proceedings in a powerful statement to the court:
“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,” he said. “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.”
The contrast could not be starker: A student, dragged 1,000 miles from his family, calmly calling out the mockery of due process, while the Secretary of State claims the power to deport people based on what he thinks they might believe in the future.
This case is about far more than just Mahmoud Khalil. It’s about whether we’ll allow the government to claim the power to police thought itself. Marco Rubio has now officially attached his name to one of the most dangerously authoritarian theories of government power we’ve seen: that the state can exile legal residents based on their “expected beliefs.” That should follow him for the rest of his life. He should never live down this cowardly suck-up in pursuit of power.
We need more people in America like Khalil, willing to speak truth to power even at great personal cost, and fewer power-hungry officials ready to torch fundamental civil liberties just to score political points in pursuit of the fascist destruction of the American constitutional and democratic principles.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, deportation, due process, fascism, free speech, green cards, mahmoud khalil, marco rubio, thought police
