‘Attack on free speech’: Condemnations as US threatens to deport pro-Palestine activists
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sparked widespread condemnations after saying that the US will be revoking the visas and green cards of pro-Palestinian activists so they can be deported.
He made the remarks in an X post on Monday, two days after federal immigration authorities detained Mahmoud Khalil, an activist who played a major role in last year’s student encampment movement at New York’s Columbia University in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid a genocidal Israeli war.
Detaining and deporting people for expressing political views with which you disagree just is authoritarianism. And considering there are 13 million green card holders in the US, this is the most significant attack on free speech in our lives. https://t.co/08tdIpZZe8
— James Brandt (@j_e_brandt) March 10, 2025
In X, analysts denounced the planned deportation of people due to their political views as a violation of the US Constitution and the First Amendment.
Mahmoud has a green card & is married to an American who is 8 months pregnant w/their kid. His only crime seems to be free speech against genocide.
— Omar Baddar عمر بدّار (@OmarBaddar) March 10, 2025
Now he's being smeared by the secretary of state of the Trump regime who is promising to deport him.
This is dark time in America. https://t.co/S3NqMVFrhb
They emphasized that the kidnapping and deporting of activists is an act of authoritarianism and an attack on free speech.
To be clear, this is a clear violation of the First Amendment. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. Green card holders - permanent residents - have many of the same constitutionally protected rights as citizens, like 1A. There is nothing showing “material support” for a… https://t.co/gUX4WC6RUV
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) March 9, 2025
Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, was inside his university-owned apartment in Manhattan when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took him into custody.
Khalil’s lawyer Amy Greer said the authorities declined to tell his wife, who is American and eight months pregnant, why he was being detained.
So green card holders can just be detained and deported if they go to a protest the White House doesn’t like?
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) March 9, 2025
What happened to the GOP that pretended to care about free speech and individual liberty and avoiding jackbooted thugs turning up at their doors because of their views? https://t.co/Jmx2d8Nu7q
Greer also noted that Khalil was a green card holder, vowing that his arrest would face a vigorous legal challenge.
The arrest, she added, “follows the US government’s open repression of student activism and political speech.”
So, I guess they’re not even pretending to care anymore about checks and balances, free speech, or the rights of U.S. persons. All to stop criticism of a foreign state.
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) March 10, 2025
This is plainly authoritarian behavior. https://t.co/dbPtcu3PlX pic.twitter.com/CX5nmEEYjv
Khalil was detained just days after US President Donald Trump threatened to prosecute and deport foreign students who were involved in what he called “illegal protests” on campus.
Kidnapping an activist and jailing him in the middle of the night is a brazen act of authoritarianism.
— Rep. Summer Lee (@RepSummerLee) March 10, 2025
Punishing dissent by revoking legal status is a dangerous precedent to set. https://t.co/OJ9cLJxLBl
The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism,” claiming that he “led activities aligned to Hamas” resistance movement.
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