The
Trump
administration
has
just
claimed
an
astounding
new
power:
the
ability
to
deport
lawful
permanent
residents
based
on
their
“expected
beliefs”
(including
perfectly
“lawful”
expected
beliefs).
This
isn’t
speculation
or
hyperbole
—
it’s
the
explicit
thought-police
justification
Secretary
of
State
Marco
Rubio
gave
in
immigration
court
documents
for
trying
to
deport
Mahmoud
Khalil,
a
Columbia
University
student
and
green
card
holder.
This
attempted
expansion
of
government
authority
to
police
thought
should
alarm
anyone
who
cares
about
civil
liberties,
due
process,
or
the
rule
of
law.
As
a
reminder,
Khalil
is
a
lawful
permanent
resident
(green
card
holder)
in
the
US
and
a
student
at
Columbia
University
in
New
York.
While
he
was
involved
in
some
pro-Palestinian
demonstrations,
MAGA
world
has
falsely
labeled
him
a
“Hamas
supporter.”
I’ve
yet
to
see
any
evidence
that
actually
supports
that
claim,
but
MAGA
isn’t
exactly
known
for
accuracy
in
their
accusations.
Even
worse,
when
ICE
showed
up
at
his
student
housing
to
arrest
him
(in
front
of
his
pregnant,
US
citizen
wife),
they
told
him
his
“visa”
was
being
revoked.
Except
he
doesn’t
have
a
visa.
He
holds
a
green
card,
which
makes
him
a
completely
lawful
permanent
resident
in
the
US.
ICE
then
told
him
his
green
card
was
also
revoked,
which
isn’t
something
they
could
actually
do.
Since
then,
there’s
been
a
lot
of
obnoxious
game
playing
by
Homeland
Security
playing
“hide
the
guy
we
kidnapped,”
before
dumping
him
in
Louisiana
and
seeking
to
deport
him.
There
are
multiple
legal
proceedings
going
on
with
respect
to
Khalil’s
future
in
the
US,
with
the
main
one
taking
place
in
a
federal
court
in
New
Jersey.
But
down
in
Louisiana
there’s
a
separate
legal
process
in
front
of
an
“immigration
judge,”
which
is
not
an
Article
III
judge
or
a
part
of
the
judiciary
at
all.
Rather
it’s
someone
who
works
for
the
DOJ
reviewing
immigration
issues.
For
a
brief
moment
last
week,
it
looked
like
even
this
DOJ
employee
was
perplexed
as
to
why
Khalil
had
been
taken
and
why
the
US
was
trying
to
deport
him.
Immigration
Judge
Jamee
Comans
ordered
DHS
to give
some
reason
for
why Khalil
was
detained
and
why
they
were
trying
to
deport
him.
At
a
hearing,
Judge
Jamee
Comans
gave
the
federal
government
24
hours
to
turn
over
its
evidence
against
Mahmoud
Khalil,
a
permanent
U.S.
resident
and
prominent
pro-Palestinian
activist,
said
Marc
Van
Der
Hout,
one
of
Khalil’s
attorneys,
who
attended
the
hearing.
“The
government
has
not
produced
a
single
shred
of
evidence
to
date
to
support
any
of
its
allegations
or
charges
in
this
case
including
its
outrageous
position
that
Mahmoud’s
mere
presence
and
activities
in
this
country
have
potentially
serious
adverse
foreign
policy
consequences,”
Van
Der
Hout
said.
The
next
day,
the
government
finally
produced
the
“evidence”
and
to
say
it
is
underwhelming
is
quite
the
understatement.
They
released
a
statement
from
Secretary
of
State
Marco
Rubio
with
a
bunch
of
vague
claims,
including
that
he
could single-handedly
kick
green
card
holders
out of
the
country
based
on
their
“expected
beliefs”
even
if
they
are
perfectly
“lawful.”
If
you
can’t
read
that
screenshot,
it
says:
Under
INA
section
237(a)
(4)
(C)(i),
an
alien
is
deportable
from
the
United
States
if
the
Secretary
of
State
has
reasonable
ground
to
believe
that
the
alien’s
presence
or
activities
in
the
United
States
would
have
potentially
serious
adverse
foreign
policy
consequences
for
the
United
States.
Under
INA
section
237(a)(4)(C)(ii),
for
cases
in
which
the
basis
for
this
determination
is
the
alien’s
past, current,
or
expected
beliefs,
statements,
or
associations
that
are
otherwise
lawful,
the
Secretary
of
State
must
personally
determine
that
the
alien’s
presence
or
activities
would
compromise
a
compelling
U.S.
foreign
policy
interest.
This
document
should
forever
define
Marco
Rubio’s
legacy.
As
Secretary
of
State,
he
has
personally
put
his
name
on
a
legal
claim
that
the
government
can
deport
lawful
residents
based
on
beliefs
they
might
hold
in
the
future
—
even
if
those
beliefs
would
be
perfectly
legal.
This
isn’t
just
standard
immigration
enforcement
overreach
—
it’s
an
attempt
to
establish
thought-police
powers
that
would
make
Orwell
blush.
And
Rubio
didn’t
just
sign
off
on
this
theory
—
he’s
actively
championing
it,
apparently
seeing
no
problem
with
claiming
the
power
to
exile
people
based
on
what
he
thinks
they
might
someday
believe.
For
anyone
keeping
score
at
home:
when
MAGA
supporters
inevitably
start
ranting
about
Democrats
wanting
to
police
speech
and
thought,
remember
that
Rubio’s
the
one
who
officially
claimed
the
power
to
deport
legal
residents
based
on
“expected
beliefs.”
That
should
be
carved
into
his
political
tombstone.
Also:
fuck
that
fascist
bullshit.
The
other
part
of
the
document
claims
that
it
was
done
based
on
the
“policy”
of
the
US
to
fight
antisemitism
and
to
protect
Jews,
but
fuck
that
as
well.
It’s
clearly
bullshit.
This
is
the
same
administration
that
has
said
the
Naval
Academy
library
had
to remove
books
about
the
Holocaust,
while
leaving
Adolf
Hitler’s
Mein
Kampf
on
the
shelves.
This
is
the
same
administration
that hired
into
a
top
position someone
with
a
long
history
of
blatantly
antisemitic
conspiracy
theories
popular
in
neo-Nazi
circles.
This
administration’s
claims
of
fighting
antisemitism
appear
to
be
pretty
antisemitic
itself,
using
false
claims
of
wanting
to
“protect”
Jews
to
actually
make
Jews
targets
of
more
hatred.
This
isn’t
about
“a
compelling
foreign
policy
interest”
by
the
Secretary
State.
This
is
about
a
fucking
insecure
coward
in
the
form
of
Marco
Rubio,
who
has
been
given
power
by
Donald
Trump
and
is
using
the
position
to
destroy
lives
because
that’s
what
insecure
fascists
do.
Tragically,
in
this
case,
that
was
enough
for
DOJ
employee
Judge
Jamee
Comans,
who
said
that
was
enough
of
a
justification
to bless
Khalil’s
deportation.
An
immigration
judge
in
Louisiana
found
on
Friday
that
the
Trump
administration
could
deport
Mahmoud
Khalil,
granting
the
government
an
early
victory
in
its
efforts
to
crack
down
on
pro-Palestinian
demonstrations
on
U.S.
college
campuses.
Again,
this
is
only
the
first
stage
in
a
multi-stage
process
involving
separate
federal
court
proceedings
in
New
Jersey
as
well,
and
even
in
front
of
the
immigration
judge
the
situation
isn’t
over.
Khalil’s
lawyers
can
still
argue
that
he
shouldn’t
be
deported
to
this
same
judge
(leaving
aside
the
constitutional
issues
that
will
show
up
in
the
New
Jersey
case).
Here,
Comans
admitted
during
the
hearing
that
she
was
unable
to
look
the
larger
constitutional
issues:
Immigration
judges
are
employees
of
the
executive
branch,
not
the
judiciary,
and
often
approve
the
Homeland
Security
Department’s
deportation
efforts.
It
would
be
unusual
for
such
a
judge,
serving
the
U.S.
Attorney
General,
to
grapple
with
the
constitutional
questions
raised
by
Mr.
Khalil’s
case.
She
would
also
run
the
risk
of
being
fired
by
an
administration
that
has
targeted
dissenters.
“This
court
is
without
jurisdiction
to
entertain
challenges
to
the
validity
of
this
law
under
the
Constitution,”
Judge
Comans
said
as
she
delivered
her
ruling,
apparently
reading
from
a
written
statement.
She
denied
Mr.
Khalil’s
lawyers’
requests
that
they
be
allowed
to
cross-examine
or
depose
Mr.
Rubio
so
that
he
could
elaborate
on
his
claims.
“This
court
is
neither
inclined
or
authorized”
to
compel
such
testimony,
she
said.
Khalil
himself
highlighted
the
fundamental
absurdity
of
these
proceedings
in
a
powerful
statement
to
the
court:
“I
would
like
to
quote
what
you
said
last
time,
that
there’s
nothing
that’s
more
important
to
this
court
than
due
process
rights
and
fundamental
fairness,”
he
said.
“Clearly,
what
we
witnessed
today,
neither
of
these
principles
were
present
today
or
in
this
whole
process.
This
is
exactly
why
the
Trump
administration
has
sent
me
to
this
court,
1,000
miles
away
from
my
family.”
The
contrast
could
not
be
starker:
A
student,
dragged
1,000
miles
from
his
family,
calmly
calling
out
the
mockery
of
due
process,
while
the
Secretary
of
State
claims
the
power
to
deport
people
based
on
what
he
thinks
they
might
believe
in
the
future.
This
case
is
about
far
more
than
just
Mahmoud
Khalil.
It’s
about
whether
we’ll
allow
the
government
to
claim
the
power
to
police
thought
itself.
Marco
Rubio
has
now
officially
attached
his
name
to
one
of
the
most
dangerously
authoritarian
theories
of
government
power
we’ve
seen:
that
the
state
can
exile
legal
residents
based
on
their
“expected
beliefs.”
That
should
follow
him
for
the
rest
of
his
life.
He
should
never
live
down
this
cowardly
suck-up
in
pursuit
of
power.
We
need
more
people
in
America
like
Khalil,
willing
to
speak
truth
to
power
even
at
great
personal
cost,
and
fewer
power-hungry
officials
ready
to
torch
fundamental
civil
liberties
just
to
score
political
points
in
pursuit
of
the
fascist
destruction
of
the
American
constitutional
and
democratic
principles.
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