The U.S. State Department revoked the student visa of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University pro-Hamas activist and terrorist sympathizer, who claims to be a Palestinian refugee from Syria. He’s since been arrested and moved to a Louisiana ICE detention facility in preparation for deportation.
Khalil’s eventual deportation provides an exclamation point to the administration’s cancellation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University and is a bone of contention to Leftists.
Fourteen congressional Democrats signed a letter protesting Khalil's detention, calling it an "attempt to criminalize political protest" and a "direct assault on freedom of speech."
But this has nothing to do with freedom of expression, according to Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson.
“This is not a free speech issue,” he said on the Tony Katz Today podcast. “If you were going to prove, as they claim, that he’s only being prosecuted because he’s quote-unquote pro-Palestinian, then you would have to find similar conduct by a pro-Israel student, which is not prosecuted.”
Jacobson explained: “The problem with these free speech arguments by the anti-Israel crowd is they are the only ones taking over buildings. They are the only ones trashing buildings. They are the only ones intimidating staff.”
If not free speech, then what? Newsmax TV contributor Ryan Mauro knows.
An investigative researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Capital Research, he did a little digging, and what he found was eye-opening.
“Khalil's group sought to incite a Oct 7 repeat on U.S. soil!" Mauro began on Twitter/X.
In addition, Khalil:
- Wanted help from violent extremists abroad; and,
- A component of his group declared itself to be a literal part of Hamas!
This was the start of a lengthy thread that continued, “Khalil's group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), was one of over 150 pro-terrorism groups I identified in my study — the largest ever done of the protests — that came out in October.”
Mauro included a link to the study, titled “Marching Toward Violence.” The rest of the thread was much the same — each jaw-dropping statement described Khalil’s extremism, followed by an item of proof to back him up.
Title 8 of the U.S.Code, Section 1227(a)(4)(B) provides for the deportation of any noncitizen, even if a lawful permanent resident, who may be a "representative" of a "political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity.”
That would apply to Khalil. Although he’s married to a U.S. citizen, he’s not one himself.
Ironically, many of the same Leftists who claim Khalil has a right to remain in the United States, have also demanded that the government deport tech billionaire Elon Musk. Although born in South Africa, he’s been a U.S. citizen since 2002.
Musk was once a darling of the Left after founding Tesla, maker of the world’s most successful electric vehicle. But since teaming up with President Donald Trump, and especially after he began ferreting out government waste, fraud, and abuse, they consider him a pariah.
Huge anti-Trump demonstrations have been held, with participants calling to “Deport Musk,” and a change.org petition was even drafted, urging the U.S. government to do the same.
The call to have Musk removed has even reached the halls of Congress.
Last week California Democrat Rep. Maxine “Mad Max” Waters said of Musk, “Send him back from wherever he came from.”
But again, Musk has something very valuable that Khalil doesn’t — American citizenship.
Professor Jacobson spoke on that very issue during his Tony Katz interview this week.
“Immigration is a very different situation than someone who’s a U.S. citizen,” he said. “The government can’t deport, to my knowledge, a U.S. citizen. They can either prosecute you for a crime or they have to leave you alone pretty much.”
And that pretty well defines today’s Left.
They call for protecting someone who wants to destroy Israel, obliterate Western civilization, and seeks to incite a terrorist raid against the United States, similar to the one Hamas carried out against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Conversely, they want to deport someone who has brought wealth and innovation to the United States, is cleaning up the swamp that the federal bureaucracy has become, and whose SpaceX program is about to rescue two U.S. astronauts who’ve been stranded on the International Space Station for nine months.
You can’t fix stupid, and the more the American voters witness this nonsense, the faster they’ll run from the Democratic Party.
And they call us crazy.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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