Trump Administration Detains Mahmoud Khalil for his Free of Speech

Hector Macgoblin, that great surgeon-boxer-poet-sailor, had always contrived to have plenty of enemies, but after the beginning of his investigation of schools, to purge them of any teachers he did not happen to like, he made so unusually many that he was accompanied by bodyguards.... he was in New York, finding quantities of “subversive elements” in Columbia University—against the protests of President Nicholas Murray Butler, who insisted that he had already cleaned out all willful and dangerous thinkers, especially the pacifists in the medical school...after a day usefully spent in kicking out of Columbia all teachers who had voted for Trowbridge, Dr. Macgoblin started off with his brace of bodyguards to try out a wager that he could take a drink at every bar on Fifty-second Street and still not pass out.

Lewis, Sinclair. It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics) (p. 168). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

On March 8th, 2025, Mahmoud Khalil was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents. Khalil is a legal US resident, a green card holder, and a leader of pro-Palestinian student protests on the Columbia campus. According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, Khalil is subject to removal form the United States under Section 237 (a) (4) (i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, “as the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe that [his] presence and activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” 

The Secretary of State, and by extension President Trump, are grossly misusing their positions of power to detain and deport Mr. Khalil. Mr. Khalil is a legal US resident who is exercising his freedom of speech to demonstrate support of Palestine and opposition to US support for Israel. Regardless of whether courts determine that the Secretary of State can proceed with this action, detaining and deporting Mr. Khalil is wrong. He is a non-violent legal US resident protester who disagrees with US foreign policy. While it may be possible that his opinions and protests could make adversely impact some foreign policy goal of the Trump administration, Mr. Rubio must weigh that adverse impact against Mr. Khalil’s right to free speech. Surely dissent such as Mr. Khalil’s is reasonable and should not lead to detention and deportation.

If the Secretary of State continues to misuse his power, this country will descend into fascism. Legal residents will be afraid to speak out on virtually any issue for fear that their opinion could be deemed “adverse to foreign policy.” Particularly given the inconsistency and absurdity of foreign policy combined with the petty vindictiveness of the Trump administration, owning an atlas which still has a map of the Gulf of Mexico could be construed as “adverse to foreign policy”. I don’t want this country to become one where people are afraid to speak their mind. The Trump administration should withdraw their action to detain and deport Mr. Khalil and return him to his family.