This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
On March 8, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate, Syrian immigrant and pro-Palestinian protester who is a permanent resident of the United States. On March 10, 2025, a U.S. district judge ordered that Mr. Khalil not be removed from the United States pending a ruling on his petition.
According to reports, Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally signed off on the revocation of Mr. Khalil's permanent resident status after receiving information from the Department of Homeland Security that Mr. Khalil had participated in "pro-Hamas rallies" at which pro-Hamas propaganda was distributed. The Trump administration has said it plans to expand arrests and deportations based on foreign policy grounds under the Immigration and Nationality Act: "An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable." Otherwise lawful statements, beliefs or associations cannot be used as grounds for exclusion or deportation, unless the Secretary of State "personally determines that the alien's admission would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest."
The Khalil case has raised First Amendment concerns about people's right to express views that differ from those of the U.S. government. Commenters have noted, for example, that in a concurring opinion in the 1945 Supreme Court case, Bridges v. Wixon, Justice Francis Murphy wrote that "once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders." Although DHS stated that Mr. Khalil had participated in "pro-Hamas" activities, Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and one of Khalil's attorneys, said that his detention "has nothing to do with security; it is only about repression. The United States government has taken the position that it can arrest, detain and seek to deport a lawful permanent resident exclusively because of his peaceful, constitutionally protected activism. In this case, in support of Palestinian human rights and an end to genocide in Gaza." It was unclear what evidence DHS used to determine that Mr. Khalil's actions constituted "pro-Hamas" activities. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization.
