March 21, 2025 (EIRNS)—The cases of Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian graduate student at Columbia University and U.S. permanent resident, and Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese assistant professor of medicine at Brown University and holder of a valid H1B visa, point to the dangerous overreach in using deportation in ways that violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech.
Khalil was targeted for his pro-Palestinian speech and political activities at Columbia University. Although he has been charged with no crime, he was arrested and taken to Louisiana. On what basis? “Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes that this student’s presence on the Columbia campus—given his outspoken support for a Palestinian state, the existence of which has been the public policy of the U.S. for generations—is a material impediment to the execution of American foreign policy,” explains Andrew Napolitano.
Dr. Alawieh was deported to Paris, and from there to Lebanon. Why? Because her mobile phone, seized at Logan Airport in Boston, indicated that she had attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed on Sept. 27, 2024. While detained, her lawyers obtained an order forbidding her deportation until a hearing could be held. But the government ignored it.
“These two arrests implicate numerous constitutionally guaranteed rights, which are generally taken for granted here,” writes Napolitano.
