George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said Wednesday that Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia graduate student taken into custody, was “in a precarious spot” due to his support of the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Khalil on Monday after his green card was revoked over his involvement in pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University. Turley said that Khalil’s attorneys need to “ramp up” their case quickly.
“The question is what the standard is here because LPRs, or lawful permanent residents, do have a robust level of constitutional protections, not as much as a citizen,” Turley told “America’s Newsroom” co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino. “The Supreme Court over two decades ago said the government could detain LPRs in the case called Demore in 2003 and that is on the books and they have a lot of support for that.”
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“We’re not sure of the relationship of this material to this individual. Some of the material even said it came from the Hamas press office, now that’s a terrorist organization. So that’s the type of evidence we’re looking to see what the nexus is to this individual,” Turley continued. “But his involvement in unlawful conduct involving trespass, ultimately, what was property damage puts him in a precarious spot and the secretary of state is given this authority under 1227 to make this determination. The courts tend to defer to that, so they’re going to need to really ramp up fast to show evidence to the contrary.”
Demonstrations at multiple universities and colleges since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that killed over 1,200 people in Israel have seen anti-Israel protesters occupy buildings, chant slogans that have connotations of wiping out Israel and block Jewish students from parts of campus. United States District Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York issued an injunction blocking Khalil’s deportation Tuesday, but Turley said the Trump administration felt their case was “good.”
Columbia University was hit with the cancellation of over $400 million in federal grants from four federal agencies Friday after failing to respond to the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism about allegations of civil rights violations during a new round of protests. The Department of Education warned other universities about potential consequences for not protecting Jewish students from harassment Tuesday.
“This case was chosen for a reason. I think they feel this is a good case for them to fight this issue initially. There is a concern and I believe it’s a legitimate one in the free speech community when you say we’re gonna be rounding up lots of folks engaging in protest,” Turley said. “The question is what that standard is. They’re allowed to protest, allowed to use free speech. What they aren’t allowed to do is to support terrorist organizations, to spread terrorist information, to threaten Jewish students and certainly not occupy buildings and destroy property.”
“So each of these cases has to make that level of determination,” Turley continued. “So we’re gonna have to work all of this out. There is a balance here to be struck. But it is important for the Trump administration to show that they are striking that balance.”
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