How Does the Obama Administration Attack Immigration and Nationality: Do you think that he can do it to a green card holder, including a US citizen?
Many of your client’s supporters believe that if the administration can do it to a green card holder, they are able to do it to anyone, including a US citizen. Do you believe that’s true?
All of these laws use terms that can be construed by courts in ways that are narrowly construed. And part of any legal arguments that are made is how those words should be defined, how…
Shapiro: But you don’t know whether [the government is] arguing that by holding a sign or erecting a tent or, I don’t know, sending money or anything else specific. We’ve tried to get an answer. We haven’t been able to. I wonder if you were able to.
The person commented, “Greer: No, you’ve seen the same things we have, basically. The publicly filed papers are what we have also seen. There’s been no evidence produced in this case yet. There haven’t been any cases where discovery has been handed over. What we know is what part of the INA that they’re using to try to remove him and what the president and the secretary of state have said from their bully pulpit and what’s in the motion to dismiss that’s been publicly filed.
Greer: Yes. I mean, I’m not sure that they could necessarily do it to somebody who was born in the United States — there are some more complications there. This administration’s complaints around challenging naturalized citizenship should give everyone pause as to how this administration will interpret certain areas of our law and who those areas of the law apply to. And I think that, obviously, that would require a significant rollback of the rule of law and the standards that we have traditionally followed, the precedents that our courts have traditionally followed. But in this day and age, I think it would be silly of us not to take these threats very seriously.
Coincidentally, she is also the daughter of Greer: Well, I mean, part of that process is going to be heard in removal proceedings. What people need to understand is this is from the Immigration and Nationality Act. This is not like a criminal statute. There wasn’t any charge against him for any crime. Therefore, he is not necessarily going to be heard on this particular issue in front of an Article III Court, like our Constitutional Court. This act is played out, in part, in immigration court. This particular provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act, as well as the application that was made to Mahmoud, has been challenged by a habeas petition. In an immigration context, the Department of State has certain obligations to provide certain information. And the efforts will be to challenge both the statute itself, the use of the statute in this particular case and the vagaries of the statute.
The Secretary of State argued yesterday that people with a green card do not have the right to remain in the United States. At Columbia last year, your client helped lead the protests.
Amy Greer: I’ve obviously listened to that a number of times now and it just doesn’t make any sense to me, to be honest with you. I understand that [Rubio] has the bully pulpit here, but it doesn’t make any sense. We have in the United States the freedom of speech and that belongs to all people, all residents here in the United States, including lawful permanent residents. I’m not attributing the speech to the person, but I do think that those statements mean something when the government doesn’t like what they say. That is not how this country should operate.
“You’re scared of going to class because the lunatics are running around screaming, frightening things and wearing covers on their face.” We would not let you in if you told us that you intended to do that. And if you do it, once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out.”
Source: ‘Doesn’t make any sense’: Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyer on govt. efforts to deport him
Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest in the midst of anti-Palestinian protests: The first of many to come: a lawyer’s report to the D.C.S. Senate
In an interview with All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro, the man said that his legal team was able to speak with him privately. A judge ruled Wednesday that he must be granted a privileged call with his attorneys. Greer said he is “doing the best he can in this moment.”
He has not been charged with a crime. The Trump administration accuses him of supporting Hamas, which the U.S. deems a terrorist group. The president said that Khalil’s arrest is “the first of many to come” of students “who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.” This comes after Trump signed an executive order in January, which cites a federal law authorizing the deportation of any foreign national who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity.”
Troy Edgar, a Department of Homeland Security deputy secretary, was unable to cite any specific examples of how Khalil’s conduct would constitute activity in the interview.
It’s unclear if this search had anything to do with the arrest of pro-Palestinian protester Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student who was detained by immigration officials last Saturday. Khalil, a U.S. permanent resident originally from Syria, was taken into custody by the authorities in front of his pregnant wife at their university apartment and told he would be deported. The incident has set off protests and a legal battle.
The recent Columbia University graduate, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on campus last year, is being held in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a detention center in Louisiana.
President Trump has long criticized pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Within days of taking office, he signed an executive order that called for the investigation and punishment of anti-Jewish racism in universities.
Campus Protests at Columbia University: Academic Receivership is a Challenge for the University, says a Washington, DC, NPR Report
Even after last week’s $400 million cuts, the government has said Columbia holds more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments. The Associated Press reports that last week’s cuts have already affected research studies at Columbia’s medical center, which relies on grants from the National Institutes of Health.
The protests are mostly peaceful and antisemitic, according to the Trump administration. The pro-Palestinian protests that were organized by Columbia University student groups include Jewish students and groups.
The president of J Street, a pro-Israel advocacy group in Washington, DC, said the administration’s targeting of higher education is an all-out assault on democracy.
On Thursday, agents from the Department of Homeland Security searched two student residences. They left without making any arrests or seizing any evidence, Gothamist, an NPR affiliate, reported.
Katrina Armstrong, Columbia’s interim president, wrote in a message to the school community confirming that the officers served the university with two warrants “to enter non-public areas of the University and conduct searches of two student rooms.”
It continues, “The federal government is responsible for ensuring that all recipients are responsible stewards of federal funds, and Columbia University is one of them.”
Khalil was one of the Columbia students who negotiated on behalf of the campus protesters who were pressing the school to divest from Israel last spring.
The letter states that the university must prohibit masks on campus so as to hide the wearer’s identity or intimidate others. It also says that Columbia must closely scrutinize student groups that may be “operating as constituent members of, or providing support for, unrecognized groups engaged in violations of University policy” and hold those organizations accountable if in violation.
In a letter obtained by NPR dated March 13, federal officials from the U.S. Education Department, Department of Health and Human Services and General Services Administration demanded Columbia place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years,” requiring them to create a full plan to do so by March 20. The letter didn’t explain why this department was targeted for an academic receivership, an unusual move in which the control of a program is placed in the hands of university administration.
Columbia University is reviewing a letter, a spokesman told NPR. He added, “We are committed at all times to advancing our mission, supporting our students, and addressing all forms of discrimination and hatred on our campus.”
This conflict over federal funding at Columbia is the latest flashpoint in a year full of controversy and discord at the university. Here’s a rundown on the recent developments.
The war in Gaza caused pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia to intensify, leading to the turmoil that began in the spring of last year. Columbia students established a series of protests on campus, and took over a university building as they demanded that the school stop doing business with companies with ties to Israel. Then-president Nemat Shafik stepped down over the summer after facing criticism for calling in police to break up the demonstrations; she’d also been grilled in Congressional hearings related to antisemitism on campus.