Of all the shocking things the Trump administration has done in less than three months, please pay attention to this: Today, the administration said it has the power to deport a student simply because of that student’s beliefs.
Not because of any illegal activity. Not because of any imminent danger. But because the administration dislikes his beliefs.
Mark Wingfield
Dear fellow Baptists, our forebears literally died defending against such tyranny. And any American Christian who attempts to defend this astonishing policy needs to turn the mirror on themselves.
The very conservative evangelicals who have for so long claimed they are being “persecuted” for their faith are happily persecuting other people for their faith, political beliefs and nationality. This is the rankest kind of hypocrisy. It stinks to high heaven.
“Dear fellow Baptists, our forebears literally died defending against such tyranny.”
One sentence in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 states: “An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”
What constitutes “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” according to the Trump White House? Free speech.
The statute also requires: “The Secretary of State must personally determine that the alien’s presence or activities would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest.”
The person at the center of this is Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, who was involved in last year’s campus protests against the state of Israel killing tens of thousands of Palestinians. Remember that Trump officials earlier swept him up, arrested him and threw him in prison. While also extorting ridiculous concessions from Columbia University that would not stand in a court of law.
Now the administration faces a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence against Khalil. Instead, Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a memo citing the above rationale for his authority to expel noncitizens on a whim.
The two-page memo, published by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil.
Rubio said while Khalil’s activities were “otherwise lawful,” letting him remain in the U.S. would undermine “U.S. policy to combat antisemitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”
Here we go again with a weaponization of the word “antisemitism.” And once again we need to say to Rubio and his allies: I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
“It is not ‘antisemitic’ to criticize the political state of Israel for its military tactics.”
It is not “antisemitic” to criticize the political state of Israel for its military tactics. That is not maligning the Jewish people as a race. It is calling attention to the evil of a political movement.
This news comes, of course, as we’re learning of the Trump administration revoking visas for more than 300 international students studying in U.S. universities without citing a reason. Surely it doesn’t take much effort to connect the dots.
What does all this mean? In short, the AP stated: “Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs.”
Khalil’s attorneys said the memo proves the Trump administration is “targeting Mahmoud’s free speech rights about Palestine.”
“After a month of hiding the ball since Mahmoud’s late-night unjust arrest in New York and taking him away to a remote detention center in Louisiana, immigration authorities have finally admitted that they have no case whatsoever against him,” said the attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout and Johnny Sinodis. “There is not a single shred of proof that Mahmoud’s presence in America poses any threat.”
All this played out on the same day as the Trump administration declined to tell a federal judge the whereabouts or status of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month despite a court order.
And despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that Garcia must be returned to the United States.
Trump told us what he would do if reelected, and he’s doing that and more. He believes he is a king with unchallenged authority to do whatever he wants. It is urgent the he be stopped. Immediately.
Protest while you still can.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality and Troubling the Truth and Other Tales from the News.
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