A week after federal agents abducted the Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for leading the student protests of last year at Columbia University – and causing national anger about freedom of expression – Minister of Foreign Affairs still refuses to say whether the government even prove to be legal.
Khalil will be held on Sunday in Louisiana, a week after the Federal Immigration Agents of Plainches have arrested him without an order, while he returned to his apartment in the university with his pregnant woman, who registered the interaction. The lawyers of the Columbia Graduate Works to bring him back to New York City.
Rubio has admitted that he has withdrawn the green map of Khalil because of his role peacefully negotiating with the government of Columbia on behalf of the students who are non -reported to the US -funded military campaign against Palestinians against Israel. The secretary set the anti-war protests equal to anti-Semitism and support for Hamas, an excuse that many Jewish protesters have called nonsense.
“Negotiating on behalf of people who took over a campus who destroyed buildings? Negotiating about what? “The secretary told the CBS 'Face the Nation' on Sunday.” That is a crime in itself, that they are involved in being the negotiator, the spokesperson, that the other. We don't need these people in our country. We should never have granted them in the first place. “
State Secretary Marco Rubio speaks with reporters after the G7 foreign ministers meeting in La Malbaie, Quebec, on March 14. Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty images
Khalil has no criminal history and is not accused of a crime in this incident. The White House itself said that Khalil's green card should be withdrawn because he organized student protests, not because he has committed a crime.
Rubio defended the treatment of Khalil in the past week by quoting a rarely used determination of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which vague states that the federal government can deport someone if the State Secretary personally believes that there are “reasonable grounds” to conclude their presence “would have potentially serious foreign policy consequences for the states.”
On Sunday, Rubio could not provide evidence that would prove that Khalil supports Hamas and is therefore eligible for deportation.
“Can you substantiate any form of material support for terrorism, in particular to Hamas, of this Columbia student?” asked host Margaret Brennan. “Or was he just a controversial political point of view?”
“We're going to do more. In fact, we now approved the revokes of visa every day – and if that visa led to a green card, including the green card process, “said Rubio, who did not answer the question.
When Brennan twice asked if there is evidence that Khalil connects with terrorism, or that his arrest is only based on his position, Rubio told the journalist that she 'had to look at the news'.
“If you are in this country to promote Hamas, to promote terrorist organizations, to participate in vandalism, to participate in rebellion and riots on campus, we would never let you go in if we had known,” he said. “And now that we know, you're leaving.”
Pro -Palestinian activists will participate in a “Fight for Our Rights” rally on Saturday to support Mahmoud Khalil, on Times Square in New York. Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty images
Everyone in the US falls under the constitution, including visa holders and permanent residents such as Khalil. The activist's lawyers say that his detention violates his first amendment and fifth amendment rights, and supporters who have protested daily for his release, say that this opens the gates for the Trump government to continue to arm immigration and higher education to crush constitutionally protected free expression.
Rubio's comments on Sunday are only the latest administration officials who avoid questions about which specific terror support actions Khalil has promised to justify the withdrawal and deportation of a green card. Troy Edgar, the deputy secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Security, was grilled for five minutes on Thursday by an NPR reporter.
When Michel Martin van NPR asked what specific terrorist activity Khalil supported, Edgar said that the activist “agitated and supported.” When Martin asked how Khalil supported exactly, “said Edgar,” I think you can see it on TV, right? “
Edgar did not respond directly to whether it is a deportable crime if someone is criticized or protests Israel or the US government.
House speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) Described Khalil as the 'brain' of last year's protests, but could not say what specific crimes the activist would justify that deportation would justify.
