On April 11, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has the authority to deport a Syrian man at the center of pro-Palestinian and anti-Jewish demonstrations and mayhem at New York’s Columbia University.
[embedded content]
Judge Jamee Comans said Mahmoud Khalil, 30, can be deported and that the State Department has the legal authority to expel green card holders (non-citizens) deemed to be agitating against U.S. foreign policy interests. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Khalil never mentioned to the U.S. that he worked in the office of the British embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, that dealt with Syrian issues. DHS said this made Khalil “inadmissible at the time of his adjustment” because he misrepresented himself and his past.
What riled the U.S. government was Khalil’s involvement with “student” protests against Israel at Columbia University. During these demonstrations, some students and activists denied Jewish students the right to freely move about the campus, threatened them, and took over university buildings by force.
Judge Comans ruled that Khalil was “deportable” under a law cited by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that allows expulsion of guests in the U.S. who take actions