So I was casually minding my own business, trying to get some rest from the onslaught of what the hell is going on in our nation, lobbing my penis around seeing if it wanted any action (the answer was a NO if you were interested) and then this NYT email in my inbox catches my eye from an article with the headline.
The U.S. Is Trying to Deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Legal Resident. Here’s What to Know.
Mr. Khalil, who helped lead protests at Columbia University against high civilian casualties in Gaza, was arrested by immigration officers and sent to a detention center in Louisiana.
I had saw just a smidgen of a headline about this before and was going to search it out, and the next thing you know (after my lobbing) I get that.
So you take a young man, who in addition to others, led campus protests against the civilian casualties in Gaza, who has a legitimate green card, and is married to a pregnant U.S. citizen and who in a CNN article 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,” he told CNN last spring when he was one of the negotiators representing student demonstrators during talks with Columbia University’s administration.
“Our movement is a movement for social justice and freedom and equality for everyone,” he said.
AND YOU TAKE AWAY HIS GREEN CARD AND SEND HIM TO A DETENTION CENTER?
While both Trump and Rubio (among others) are trying to paint him as someone who is antisemitic, Khalil has said that there is no place for antisemitism.
While Trump and Rubio are trying to tie him to Hamas and terrorism, there's nothing that ties him to either.
He's simply doing the same thing that protestors did here during the Vietnam War. And yes, he's getting the same, "Are you a communist sympathizer", but 1000 steps further bcause he's got his green card revoked for no legal reason, he's detained, and now facing deportation.
The U.S. was built on free speech, and yes, there are limits, but Mahmoud Khalil? He didn't spout hate speech and incite violence, unlike Trumpcession did. He's well within his rights to do what he's done and is afforded the same rights from a free speech perspective (according to journalist Minho Kim from the NYT).
Like I said in the title of this post, it's feeling a little like Nazi time where if I don't like you, get ready for the gas chambers, and if you think that statement is a little pedestrian and overwrought, I would say from an Executive Order Type Of Level, it's mostly high-level anyway, and that's the problem.
Where does it end?
Will U.S. citizens, in "extreme" circmstances try and have their citizenship revoked?
It's already happening with birthright citizenship. But people think of that as so out of reach and so unconstitutional it will never work, especially with so many legal challenges.
But what about a newly minted citizen from a country where let's say in a year, is looked at from a hostile perspective, as an enemy.
Instead of concentration camps, which we've already done, is it out of the question to think that an administration, or government body, will say "Anyone from country X that received citizenhip in the last 10 years will have their citizenship revoked and deported."?
Does that sound that far fetched in this current climate against immigrants?
Consider that under current policies:
A person is subject to revocation of naturalization if the person becomes a member of, or affiliated with, the Communist party, other totalitarian party, or terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization.[6] In general, a person who is involved with such organizations cannot establish the naturalization requirements of having an attachment to the Constitution and of being well-disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States.[7]
The fact that a person becomes involved with such an organization within five years after the date of naturalization is prima facie evidence that he or she concealed or willfully misrepresented material evidence that would have prevented the person’s naturalization.
It doesn't seem that far out of reach, and no matter what, the vortex of DETAIN NOW ASK QUESTIONS LATER, is always in play. And sure, maybe the legal battle is won, but how long does it take while someone rots away?
This is not the America we should be living in.
