Yesterday, a Louisiana immigration judge ordered the deportation of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil to either Syria or Algeria for allegedly omitting info from his green card application. So the order, dated 12th September by the immigration judge, asserted. [00:00:17] The lack of full disclosure on Khalil's green card application was not an oversight by an uninformed, uneducated applicant. Rather, this court finds with that respondent, willfully misrepresented material facts, it is hereby further ordered that respondent be removed [00:00:34] from the United States to Algeria or in the alternative to Syria, wrote the judge. Yeah. So they were saying that this wasn't just an accident. He did this on purpose. He didn't just overlook it. He's a Columbia graduate, so he knew what he was doing. So this is just the latest move in Trump, in the Trump administration's very drawn [00:00:52] out efforts to deport Khalil over his involvement in the pro-Palestinian protests on Columbia's campus last year. So here's some reporting from Politico on it. For more than three months earlier this year, Khalil was held in detention in Louisiana after the Trump administration arrested him, [00:01:11] invoking a rarely used provision of immigration law that allows the government to deport any non-citizen, even a legal resident, if the secretary of State determines that the person's continued presence harms U.S. Foreign policy interests. In June, new Jersey federal Judge Michael Faria, a Biden appointee, [00:01:31] blocked the Trump administration from deporting Khalil. On foreign policy grounds. Days later, the judge ordered Khalil's release after determining that he was not a flight risk or danger to the community. However, this latest ruling comes from the Trump administration's assertion [00:01:49] that when he applied for his green card in March of 2024, he did not disclose all of his memberships in different organizations or past employment. Specifically, the Trump administration has accused Khalil of neglecting to disclose that he had worked with a UN agency that assists Palestinian refugees, [00:02:09] as well as membership in Columbia University. Apartheid divest, a coalition of student groups involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. And according to Khalil's lawyers, Khalil's work at the UN agency was actually an internship through his school, [00:02:26] and it was thought to be considered coursework rather than employment, so that's why it was left off of there. Regarding the coalition, Khalil was apparently a mediator, not a member, and he allegedly took that role after he applied for permanent residency. So the question is, what happens now? [00:02:43] Well, Khalil's lawyers, they have 30 days to appeal the judge's ruling and deportation order, which is what they plan to do. However, the situation has become a bit more dire. In a letter to the judge, Khalil's lawyers wrote this they expect the. [00:03:00] They expect that process to be swift, and that an appeal of the BIA decision, which would go to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, is unlikely to be successful, since, they wrote, the appeals court almost never grant stays of removal to non-citizens. [00:03:16] As a result, they wrote, the only meaningful impediment to petitioners physical removal from the United States would be this court's important order prohibiting removal during the pendency of his federal habeas case. And, they wrote, nothing would preserve his lawful permanent resident status, [00:03:34] lawful being the key word there. Khalil has also commented on this situation, accusing the Trump administration of using, quote, fascist tactics. He said their latest attempt through a kangaroo immigration court exposes their true colors once again. [00:03:50] When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide. Such fascist tactics will never deter me from continuing to advocate [00:04:09] for my people's liberation. So yeah, so this thing has been going on for months, as he mentioned, as the articles have mentioned. And he, you know, he said, you know, all of this is being done in a bid to silence me, to stop me from speaking out against fascism and to stop [00:04:24] me from speaking out against genocide. That is happening in Gaza right now that we can all see is happening unless we really, really don't want to see it. And, you know, like I said, this has been going on for months, and as of the last week, we have just seen all of that kind of rhetoric, [00:04:39] all of those actions right there, actually doing something about these things. They're not just talking about deporting people, they're not just talking about jailing people. They are doing it now. And so we've seen a rapid, exponential escalation of calls [00:04:55] to just silence people. And they're not even being they're not trying to tiptoe around it at all. Right. They're saying this is what we're doing and who's going to stop us? And you can't say anything anyway because you're a terrorist now. Like, maybe, I don't know. They're already thinking of calling us all terrorists. [00:05:11] So was what is your take on all of this? And, I wonder is, are they making an example out of him, or can we expect to see similar cases just like this one? It's definitely an example. And it's basically the United States government going after a lawful resident, [00:05:33] a quote unquote legal immigrant, green card holder for holding views that are opposed to the actions of a foreign nation. I mean, there's just no two ways about it. If if Khalil would have been out [00:05:49] on Columbia's campus saying, yo, I don't I don't think that the US should have, you know, hundreds of bases across the world. I don't believe in the military industrial complex. I don't think we should be intervening on behalf of other countries [00:06:08] and working in collaboration with dictators and blah, blah, blah. The myriad of criticisms that people levy upon the United States as it pertains to its military and foreign policy. The fact of the matter is, this guy would still be. He'd be fine if he were criticizing our own government. [00:06:28] But the fact that this guy was criticizing the government of Israel, this administration has decided that is basically, you know, an, an offense that's worthy of deportation. That's insane. And there's no other way to look at this. [00:06:47] And, you know, yeah, the courts like Trump is, basically gets whatever the hell he wants in the courts these days. And this technicality like, this isn't even this doesn't even close to rise to the level of something. Oh, you know, you might have admitted that you were, a multiple convicted [00:07:07] criminal in your country of origin or something crazy like that. This is that he didn't distinguish some organization he interned for while he was at Columbia studying. I mean, it's it's preposterous on its face. [00:07:25] And yeah, just the fact that, again, just think about that. As an American citizen, you are under more scrutiny for criticizing the actions of a foreign government than of your own. Yeah. I mean, it really is preposterous and it's also preposterous [00:07:44] the lengths that they will go to just to find something to, to get you for. Right. They're saying that he intentionally falsified a government document by leaving certain things off of his green card application, even though there is a very plausible explanation and reasonable explanation for why certain things were left off of that document. [00:08:01] This is a permanent resident that is a legal type of immigrant. This is somebody who is a student and or what was a student at one of our universities. Like, this is someone who deserves to be here. And he was practicing his freedom of speech while he was here in the United States. [00:08:18] And, you know, there's no reason why he should have expected any of this to happen to him for doing so. You know, these the things that he was involved with, you know, those are very common things to also find on college campuses, especially a campus like Columbia, based in New York City, a very prestigious university. [00:08:35] It's come down a little bit in its prestige as of late, in large part because of what's happening to people like Khalil. But, it's a very, very sad, sad state of affairs. And I can only hope that after whatever is on the other side of all of this, [00:08:50] that things will be reversed. I don't know how long that's going to take. I have no idea, you know, but that's really like the hope that I have to cling on to, because it really is hard to find hope these days. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.