Delaware Valley U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Delaware) is one of the three House Democrats leading the defense of a Syrian immigrant facing deportation over leadership role in antisemitic protests at Columbia University, comparing his treatment to “McCarthyism.”
Mahmoud Khalil is a former Columbia student and current green card holder who’s been an outspoken participant in the anti-Israel campus protests, including illegal encampments and angry encounters that left some Jewish students afraid to attend class.
Khalil has been targeted for deportation by the Trump administration, and he’s currently in federal custody. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who’s overseeing the deportation effort, points to the green card holder’s public support for the terror group Hamas, including handing out pro-Hamas fliers and celebrating the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack that left more than 1,200 dead in Israel.
“When you apply for a student visa or any visa to enter the United States, we have a right to deny you for virtually any reason. But I think being a supporter of Hamas and coming into our universities and turning them upside down, being complicit in what are clearly crimes, vandalization, complicit in shutting down institutions,” Rubio said. “If you told us that’s what you intended to do when you came to America, we would have never let you in. And if you do it once you get in, we’re going to revoke it and kick you out.”
Progressives are outraged, calling Khalil’s detention an attack on free speech and a sign of encroaching fascism. Hundreds poured into Trump Tower in New York City Thursday to protest the Trump administration’s actions. Nearly 100 were arrested.
Scanlon has joined far-left Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) in a letter to Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem supporting Khalil.
According to Jewish Insider, more than 100 Democrats have signed onto the letter, which “does not mention or acknowledge the specific nature of Khalil’s activities on Columbia’s campus, including his involvement with the anti-Israel encampment and the alleged distribution of pro-Hamas pamphlets at a protest he helped organize,” the outlet reports.
“We express our grave concern over the constitutionally dubious use of an obsolete Cold War era section of the Immigration and Nationality Act to have federal agents pick up a lawful permanent resident at his home, arrest him and detain him for exercising his First Amendment Rights,” the letter said.
The letter continues to say the Trump administration’s “maneuver evokes the Alien and Sedition Acts and McCarthyism.”
“Weaponizing the immigration system to crush and chill protected free speech puts our nation on the side of authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping,” the authors wrote.
Supporters of his deportation say Khalil’s problem isn’t his speech but rather his behavior. As City Journal reports:
“Videos appear to show Khalil standing with a bullhorn near the library’s entrance surrounded by keffiyeh-masked disruptors. The gathering featured propaganda bearing the label ‘Hamas Media Office,’ including a booklet celebrating the Oct. 7 massacre entitled, ‘Our Narrative . . . Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.'”
Rabbi Matt Abelson, a member of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia, said, “Under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, Secretary of State Rubio can make the decision to detain Mahmoud Khalil. That’s not in dispute. The court will render a decision, and I trust that decision will be reasonable. That Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon would take the lead in circulating a letter condemning Khalil’s detention is consistent with the votes she has cast post 10/7, which have emboldened Hamas and its supporters on college campuses.”
Pro-Hamas demonstrations, encampments and marches occurred on many American campuses since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel that took the lives of 1,200 innocent Israelis. Another 200 were taken hostage.
Columbia was at the forefront of these demonstrations, with more than 100 people arrested. Locally, the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Swarthmore, and Haverford have all weathered pro-Palestinian protests.
Protesters have threatened Jewish students and antisemitism is on the rise.
President Donald Trump promised to protect Jewish students’ civil rights and told some 60 colleges and universities, including Swarthmore, to protect their Jewish students or else.
The administration has canceled $400,000 in grants to Columbia.
Fellow Pennsylvania Democrat U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has a very different view than Scanlon.
Responding to congressional Democrats who posted “Free Mahmoud Khalil” on social media, Fetterman wrote, “Free all the hostages who have been tortured, starved, raped, beaten and STILL in tunnels in Gaza by Hamas since October 7th, 2023.”
Immigration lawyer and pundit Christine Flowers said, “The people who are attempting to make Mahmoud Khalil a victim of some fascist plot to deny an immigrant his First Amendment rights don’t understand the law and are ignorant of the facts. Khalil is not being targeted because of anything he said. If anything, his words are innocuous and more or less similar to the ridiculous rhetoric of the Pro-Palestinian agitators, who throw around the word genocide as some trendy hashtag on social media.
“While none of us know all of the facts, suffice it to say that Khalil is receiving more due process than the victims of Oct. 7 received, and what he would receive in most Middle Eastern countries that have refused to condemn Hamas,” Flowers added.
