Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP
TOWNHALL | Published March 13, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is too nice. Yet, in his position, while he can smack down the media in a graceful way, he can’t go full Trump, though I know he would like to, especially when CBS News’ Margaret Brennan tried to make the case that too much free speech is what caused the Nazi Holocaust. I’m still not over that moment of historical illiteracy that was nationally televised.
Rubio was asked about the pending deportation of a pro-Hamas activist, Mahmoud Khalil, who was here on a green card and caused mayhem at Columbia University. He’s been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s become a spectacle for liberal America, who are trying to cast him as a political prisoner, an American citizen, and making this matter about free speech. It’s neither of those things.
The secretary of state was quite clear: no one has a right to come here or be granted a visa. If they declared their support for vicious Muslim terror groups who rape, murder, and kidnap people, then he would hope that person would be denied. If they came here with such a visa and then committed these acts of mayhem, they should be deported. It’s not hard. These clowns have disrupted campus life to the point where learning and other aspects of a higher education institution can no longer function. Mr. Khalil is being treated like Nelson Mandela. It’s a sick joke.
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SOURCE: www.townhall.com
RELATED: Marco Rubio fires back at critics of Mahmoud Khalil’s ICE arrest: ‘This is not about free speech’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back on criticism over the arrest and effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil argued on March 12 that it is ‘not about free speech’ and ‘no one has a right to a green card’
DAILY MAIL ONLINE | Published March 13, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio fired back at critics of the arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, saying that it is ‘not about free speech.’
Khalil was a graduate student and legal U.S. resident involved in the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University last year who was detained on Saturday night by ICE.
His arrest has ignited a fierce debate over whether the Trump administration violated his First Amendment rights by detaining him and trying to deport him.
The president accused Khalil of being ‘pro-Hamas’ and Rubio declared the U.S. would revoke visas and green cards of ‘Hamas supporters in America.’
Hundreds of people have come out in protest this week, and Democrats have raised alarms after he was arrested but not charged with a crime.
But Rubio defended the arrest and effort to have Khalil deported on Wednesday.
‘When you come to the United States as a visitor, which is what a visa is, which is how this individual entered this country, on a visitor’s visa, you are here as a visitor. We can deny you that visa,’ the U.S. top diplomat argued.
If someone said they intended to come to the U.S. as a student ‘and rile up all kinds of anti-Jewish student, anti-Semitic activities’ and shut down universities, they would be denied the visa, Rubio said.
Palestinian activist and then-graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who served as a spokesperson during protests at Columbia University last year, was arrested by ICE on Saturday night and is challenging efforts to deport him
He added: ‘If you actually end up doing that once you’re in this country on such a visa, we will revoke it.’
Rubio also said if they end up on a green card with such activities, the U.S. will kick someone out.
‘This is not about free speech. This is about people who don’t have the right to be in the United States to begin with,’ the secretary of state said.
‘No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card,’ Rubio added.
He said the U.S. can deny one for ‘virtually any reason.’
That included ‘being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down, and being complicit in what are clearly crimes of vandalization, complicit in shutting down learning institutions.’
Protesters demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil at a rally in lower Manhattan on March 12
After his arrest on Saturday, Khalil was first held in New Jersey and then moved to an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
A judge on Monday blocked his immediate deportation, so his legal challenge could be considered.
Khalil has not been charged with a crime. He is also married to a U.S. citizen. His wife is eight months pregnant.
A brief hearing on Wednesday largely focused on jurisdiction, but one of Khalil’s lawyers told the judge that they have not been able to have a single attorney-client protected phone call with him.
His lawyers have previously rejected accusations that Khalil is a pro-Hamas sympathizer.
During the pro-Palestinian protests that rocked Columbia University last year, Khalil acted as a spokesperson for those protesting.
In an interview last year with CNN, Khalil said ‘as a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other.’
Khalil speaking to the media about the encampment at Columbia in June 2024
After his arrest on Saturday, the American Civil Liberties Union slammed the move as ‘illegal and un-American.’
‘The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes,’ said the ACLU’s Ben Wizner in a statement.
‘To be clear: The First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate,’ Wizner added.
Jewish groups have been torn over his detention and the Trump administration crackdown on campus protests.
The Anti-Defamation League praised the Trump administration’s ‘broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus anti-Semitism.’
It argued ‘any deportation action or revocation of a Green Card or visa must be undertaken in alignment with required due process protections.’
But it hoped the action ‘serves as a deterrent to others who might consider breaking the law on college campuses or anywhere.’
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SOURCE: www.dailymail.co.uk
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