As part of a national day of action on March 15, hundreds in Times Square, New York, demanded the release of pro-Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who Immigration and Enforcement officers are holding in detention while facing deportation, reported the Columbia Daily Spectator. The permanent U.S. residency holder completed work last year on a master's degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs last year. .
(Photo by Ryan Murphy/Columbia Spectator)
Political opinions, which do not jibe with those of the current United States administration, are being used to justify despicable actions. However, this is not the first time that U.S. officials have punished those who disagree with them or seem different from them. Indeed, it is not even uniquely American.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out --because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
Hundreds in Times Square, New York, demanding the release of Columbia University pro-Palestinian student leader, Mahmoud Khalil, on March 15, reported Columbia Spectator, as well as the scores of people, led by Jewish Voice for Peace, who engulfed the Trump Tower lobby on March 13, according to Reuters (March 14), understand the warning of the German Lutheran Rev. Martin Niemoller (1892-1984), which is posted on the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website.
Like many Germans, the Rev. Martin Niemoller believed, at first, that Adolph Hitler would provide strong leadership, which would make Germany strong again. His views changed when he was imprisoned in a concentration camp for speaking out against governmental control of churches. Later, he encouraged Germans to take responsibility for World War II atrocities.
Mahmoud Khalil's Detention
On March 8, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a U.S. permanent resident, over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University last year, reported Politico (March 15).
There are no charges filed against him.
Mahmoud Khalil is being held in Louisiana. The Trump administration moved to deport Khalil, a Palestinian who was born and raised in Syria, but a New York federal judge ruled that he cannot be expelled from the country during his case proceedings.
Khalil is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge on March 27, reported ABC News (March 17).
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio portrayed the arrest as a defense of Jewish people, according to Politico (March 15).
"The United States has zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorists," Secretary Rubio posted on the social media platform, X.
"This is the first arrest of many to come," Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
More than 100 House Democrats Rise Up
More than 100 of the 213 House Democrats sent a letter to top Trump officials on March 14 decrying Mahmoud Khalil's arrest as an attack of the free speech First Amendment and questioning the murky legal authority invoked by the administration, reported Politico (March 14). There are 218 House Republicans.
The lawmakers, including Representatives Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Jamie Ruskin of Maryland and Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, slammed the use of the Cold War section of Immigration Nationality Act of 1952 as the "playbook of authoritarians".
The signatories of the letter asked the administration to explain its actions on "evidentiary grounds". Secretary of State Rubio has concluded that Khalil's presence in the country threatens "serious adverse foreign policy consequences".
The House Democrats' letter asks the administration to respond with answers, as well as legal and other documents, by March 27.
McCarran-Walter Act of 1952
Rubio's legal ground for holding Khalil relies on a provision of a law which, ironically, targeted Jewish immigration applicants, including Holocaust survivors, reported Politico (March 15).
The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, formally known as the Immigration Nationality Act of 1952, empowers the secretary of state to expel nationals who pose a threat to the United States.
The McCarran-Walter Act came amid the anti-communist fears of the Cold War, according to the Associated Press (March 12). While it eased some race-based immigration restrictions, particularly for Asians, it limited most immigration to Europeans.
It also codified rules allowing ideology to be used to deny immigration and allow deportation.
President Harry Truman was concerned about the maintenance of the national origins quota system and the establishment of racially constructed quotas for Asians, according to the Immigration Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act), Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State.
The 1952 Act created symbolic opportunities for Asian immigration though, in reality, it continued to discriminate against Asians. The law repealed the last of the existing measures excluding Asian immigration, allotted each Asian nation a minimum quota of 100 visas each year and eliminated laws preventing Asians from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens.
However, at the same time, the new law only allotted Asian quotas based on race, instead of nationality. An individual with one or more Asian parent, born anywhere in the world and possessing any citizenship, would be counted under the national quota.
Low quota numbers and the racial construction for how to apply them ensured that Asian immigration would remain very limited.
President Truman believed that the law was discriminatory. He vetoed it, but the law had enough support in Congress to pass over his veto.
112,000 Japanese Americans in Internment Camps
The 1952 act was passed 10 years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's executive order allowed the forced evacuation of about 112,000 Japanese Americans -- which included nearly 70,000 U.S. citizens -- who were sent to internment camps, according to the National Archives. They were considered a threat to national security after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
There were no charges of disloyalty filed against any of them. People were given a few days to dispose of their homes, farms and businesses before the government confiscated them.
In 1988, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which acknowledged the injustice of internment, apologized for it and provided a $20,000 cash payment to each person who had been incarcerated and was still alive.
Tumult at Columbia University
Last week was a tumultuous one for Columbia University.
After Khalil's arrest, agents with the Department of Homeland Security searched two university residences with a warrant on March 13, reported The Associated Press (March 15). No one was arrested, and the reason for the search was unclear.
The Trump administration delivered an ultimatum to Columbia University leaders on March 13. It threatened to end a portion of its federal funding unless the school implements strong controls over its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department as well as makes significant changes to student discipline standards and other university policies, reported National Public Radio (March 14). The deadline for submitting a plan is March 20.
The Trump administration already has cancelled $400 million in federal grants and contracts out of more than $5 billion.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., called the Trump administration's targeting of higher education part of "an all-out assault on the norms of our democracy and against the very existence of critical institutions, programs and services across all sectors of our society".
"That is why it is so painful to see the very real fears of Jewish Americans about rising anti-Semitism being abused by the Trump Administration to advance a nefarious agenda that undercuts key pillars of the Jewish experience -- from civil rights to immigration and higher education."
Columbia is not the only university to face heightened scrutiny from the Trump administration: 52 are under investigation as part of the president's efforts to rid institutions of efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.
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