The New Republic: Why Islamist Mahmoud Khalil Was Really Arrested

The New Republic is very much a Progressive outlet, and they think they have a big scoop here, but, in reality, they actually make the point that he needed to be scooped up and eventually deported. But, first Ryan Mauro has a long thread (I’m taking the screenshots from Twitchy)

And the thread gets, much, much worse, which is also noted in the Jerusalem Post. Let’s jump in to the New Republic

White House Admits Why Mahmoud Khalil Was Really Arrested

Pro-Palestine activist and legal U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil wasn’t arrested by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for committing an actual crime, but because Secretary of State Marco Rubio had personally determined that he had to go.

Khalil, who is a green card holder, was arrested by ICE last week under the authority of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or INA, two officials at the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security told Zeteo News Tuesday.

There’s actually some debate. Some say he was here on a student visa and a green card, some say he was a permanent resident, but, as Eitan Fischberger tweeted

Mahmoud Khalil came to America around December 2022, and became a permanent resident in 2024.

Which means he’s spent his entire time as a permanent resident advocating with a group that calls for “Death to America”

And he has a document for this.

Section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of INA says that any “alien” is “deportable” if the secretary of state “has a reasonable ground” to believe their presence could result in “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.

OK, so, the New Republic’s Edith Olmsted has, unintentionally, made the case that Khalil needed to be scooped up and needs to be deported

Separately, a White House official told conservative rag The Free Press Monday that the government did not believe Khalil had committed an actual crime. “The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law,” the official said.

He doesn’t have to. Of course, threatening to kill Jews is rather against the law. Threatening to destroy Israel and showing support for a US designated terrorist group aren’t actually a good thing, either.

The White House official alleged that Khalil was “mobilizing support for Hamas and spreading antisemitism in a way that is contrary to the foreign policy of the US,” a claim that Khalil has denied and that the government has released no evidence to support.

The INA was originally used to oust those suspected of being Soviet spies. But it has never been used to punish speech, and it’s unclear what evidence Rubio would need to provide to justify superseding Khalil’s First Amendment rights.

Threatening to kill Jews and Americans would cover it. Threatening murder is not free speech, nor protesting peaceably, nor petitioning for redress of grievance. Threatening to commit October 7ths repeatedly on American soil is not, particularly as a visitor to our country. Oh, and

Hmm, someone who is not actually an American citizen, who came in 2022 and immediately started agitating, was doing this, and they shouldn’t be deported? Seriously, when combined with the actual details the NR piece makes the point he should be.

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