Columbia U is at Fault for its Pro-Hamas Graduate's Arrest & Possible Deportation

And now everyone is an armchair immigration lawyer!

Do you think Mahmoud Khalil should be deported? He is not the problem.

Recently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Khalil at his Columbia-owned apartment under what is being referred to as “an executive order that prohibits antisemitism.” I shouldn’t know this guy’s name at all, yet he’s quickly become one of the most identifiable figures in the West right now. He has world leaders and congresspeople and protesters expressing all kinds of views on him and taking to the streets with signs with his name on them. In his role as one of the chief “negotiators” between the anti-Israel demonstrators and the Columbia administration, he failed to achieve anything in the name of freedom for oppressed minorities. He did, however, achieve fame (at least for now). Interesting how his supporters use the term “kidnapped” to describe his being taken into ICE custody, but didn’t exactly respond with the same energy when Hamas kidnapped U.S. citizens on October 7th.

The coverage of this one person’s arrest has spun out of control, considering there are actual atrocities happening to millions around the world. For conflicts not involving Jews, there are plenty to choose from—how about the current genocide in Syria or the mass murder of Christians in Sudan? If you want something closer to home, we have Musk shutting down entire agencies with the flick of a pen, our government on the verge of a shutdown, and our unhinged president tacitly supporting the Kremlin. They are not circumstances that those running Columbia or people like Khalil necessarily caused, however their behavior directly contributed to the election outcome that made all of it possible.

Lest we forget: there are millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. for whom obtaining a green card would be a dream from heaven. Most would do anything in their power for it and not openly voice support for Hamas in the process. Most are decent people who are currently fearing arrest from ICE as Trump’s ‘border czar’ continues his reign of terror throughout the country. Yet the outrage and victimhood narrative has shifted to this one Ivy League graduate.

Whether or not Khalil should be deported is the wrong question, and his arrest isn’t even in line with the Trump administration’s stated promises on addressing antisemitism on college campuses. Am I in favor of expelling and revoking the student visas of foreign students shutting down campus buildings for Hamas? Hell yes. But that is not what’s occurring in this situation. Khalil was neither a student nor under a student visa at the time of his arrest. If anything, it’s provoked many of those who probably should have been dealt with all at once under any new policy.

Everything Khalil did, he did not do alone, and there was no way that he was the only non-citizen doing it. His arrest by ICE occurred after more than a year and a half of fuckery that involved the handsomely compensated executives of Columbia University coddling, excusing, and/or negotiating with him and his peers engaging in similar activity. With the exception of the raid of Hamilton Hall, Columbia never pressed charges on the student protesters, and as far as I know any other charges that did arise (i.e. for trespassing) were dropped by the Manhattan DA.

From my observation, the administrators of Columbia so far have accepted zero responsibility for what’s currently transpiring on their campus, preferring instead to play the victim. “Trump cut our funding, and now ICE is coming to campus! This isn’t our fault, it’s the fault of misinformed voters!” Of course, everything currently implicating Khalil (and his friends) was in Columbia’s power to stop at any point since they started on October 8th, 2023. They did not have to “negotiate” with student terrorist sympathizers. They did not have to tolerate the pro-Hamas encampment. They allowed it all to spiral out of control, a decision that both damaged their brand and endangered their own students—and I actually include Khalil in this category, since he’s now in ICE custody largely for what he did under Columbia’s watch before they graduated him.

I am no lawyer, and I can’t help but notice that all of a sudden everyone on social media has someone become an armchair immigration attorney. I’ve seen people argue about the extent to which free speech rights apply to non-citizens, whether or not green card holders receive more protections than those and on student visas, etc. I have no idea what to say about any of that. But here is one thing I do know: there is no law against being an antisemitic asshole. There are of course laws against openly supporting foreign terror organizations. If what Khalil did rises to the legal level of stripping him of his permanent residency, then fine. But don’t say that it’s about “protecting Jews.”

I do not have any emotional stake in seeing Khalil deported (or not) more than I do any other stranger in the same limbo of possible deportation—and certainly there are many, most without the advantage of having Susan Sarandon and her rich friends show up in protest. After the dust settles in this case, the social media public will no doubt move on and forget his name (anyone remember who Neely and Penny were? Yeah, didn’t think so). But the Trump administration will continue going after people—who knows who’s next—and someone will need to be blamed for it. And which group of people do you think will be the target for that blame?

I’ll give you one guess.