The Trump administration’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil has ignited a fierce debate about the limits of free speech and the rights of noncitizens in the United States.
Khalil, a green card holder, Columbia University graduate, and chief organizer of the anti-Israel campus riots that ensued after October 7, was detained by ICE agents twelve days ago and is currently being held by the U.S. government in a Louisiana jail.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said the arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting antisemitism,” and connected to “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
As of yesterday, a federal judge denied the administration’s request to dismiss Khalil’s challenge to his arrest. It’s just the beginning of what is sure to be a long and complicated legal battle.
We have covered this story extensively in The Free Press. We’ve broken news on the administration’s plans to use Khalil’s case as a blueprint for more arrests. Yale Law professor Jed Rubenfeld explained the thorny legal complexities that make this such a challenging case.
But there’s a more important, more basic question than whether deporting Khalil is technically legal, or how the government might go about doing it, and that is: Would his deportation be good or bad for America? Just because the government can do something—and in this case, that is fiercely contested—doesn’t mean it should.
Is deportation a reasonable exercise of our national sovereignty to protect the United States from somebody who despises—and wants to destroy—our culture and values?
Or is this a disturbing move intended to chill political speech—including by Americans—that violates one of our most precious freedoms?
Those are the questions debated in today’s installment of Free Press Fight Club.
Arguing in favor of Khalil’s deportation is Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. He sees the move as a righteous act of self-defense. Taking the other side is The Free Press’s Eli Lake, who despises everything Khalil stands for, but believes his detention sets a dangerous precedent.
—The Editors