Democrats and anti-Israel activists are claiming the attempted deportation of an alleged Hamas sympathizer to be unconstitutional, but immigration experts point out that the State Department has broad authority to remove foreign nationals deemed a foreign policy threat.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on March 8 arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born Algerian national who became the face of the anti-Israel protests in Columbia University throughout 2024. Khalil’s arrest and the Trump administration’s efforts to see him deported have drawn incredible backlash from his lawyers, activists and a growing cohort of Democratic lawmakers, many of whom are arguing that the actions are an infringement on his free speech rights. (RELATED: Border Patrol Apprehensions Reach Lowest Average In History)
“This is definitely not a free speech issue,” Matt O’Brien,…
