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Khalil’s detention is a threat to us all [1]

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Date: 2025-03-14

It’s important to note that Khalil has not been charged with any crimes. While some of the protests at Columbia turned violent and resulted in arrests, he has not been arrested.

Khalil was detained by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in his university-owned New York City apartment Saturday night, reportedly on orders that came directly from Secretary of State Marco Rubio . Before Khalil had a hearing, he was held at a detention center in New Jersey before being transferred to a facility in Louisiana, over 1,000 miles away from his home.

A federal judge has for now halted efforts by the Trump administration to swiftly deport activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident who was a key figure in anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia University.

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Still, the Trump administration believes the Khalil violated a rule for green-card holders, which says that membership, support, or association with a known terrorist group is grounds for revoking a person’s green card. The administration asserts that Khalil’s activities amount to support of Hamas, the brutal terror group behind the horrific massacre of Israelis and other nationals in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

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Citing that rule, the administration was able to take Khalil into without due process, detain him, and threaten him with deportation.

But just because they seemingly can detain Khalil does not mean that the administration should, or that courts shouldn’t look skeptically on their use of that authority in this case. Contorting immigration law in this manner, to punish what appears to be peaceful speech, raises serious legal and Constitutional questions. And it is frankly un-American for the federal government to simply brand someone a terrorist supporter without due process — a real opportunity for him to hear and try to rebut the allegations against him.

All people in the United States, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, have First Amendment protections. A core purpose of that constitutional right is to protect the ability of anyone in the country to speak openly and freely, to assemble, and to urge the government to redress actions that the speakers believe are unfair — all without fear of retribution. It embodies the principle at the heart of a quote written in a biography about philosopher Voltaire to sum up his thoughts on freedom of speech: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

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That Rubio ordered Khalil’s detainment, and President Trump posted on social media that Khalil’s was the “first arrest of many to come,” strongly evidences the administration’s complete disregard for Khalil’s and every American’s constitutional rights.

The Constitution also requires that anyone facing a legal action that can deny them of liberty or property be given due process — meaning a fair opportunity to have their case heard and the ability to plead and prove their innocence or lodge other defenses. That this was denied is also constitutionally suspect.

Khalil denies he was ever engaged in terroristic activities, arguing through his lawyers in court Wednesday that he was engaged in “peaceful, constitutionally protected activism.”

Let’s be clear: Regardless of anyone’s views of Khalil’s role in the protests at Columbia or his public statements, he is not the shoe bomber. But even convicted terrorist Richard Reid, the British national who tried to detonate a bomb hidden in his sneakers during a Miami-bound flight from Paris in 2001, was given due process.

Khalil has not been charged, let alone convicted, of any crime. Yet it took days after his arrest for any hearing to take place — and it first required detective work on behalf of his family and legal team to find out where he was being held. This kind of “disappearing” action by the federal government is the kind of thing one is used to seeing play out in countries like Russia, not on US soil.

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Nor does that single hearing — which was only intended to determine whether the government could go ahead with deporting him — amount to the full due process that he should receive on the underlying accusations against him.

If the government has a case for removing Khalil, let it make it in court. But in the meantime, judges and federal officials must mind the Constitution and the law. If the government is allowed to operate so clearly outside of the normal procedures that the law and Constitution prescribe in Khalil’s case, no one is safe from similar treatment.

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.

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[1] Url: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/14/opinion/khalils-detention-is-threat-us-all/

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