Is Trump Using ‘Anti-Semitism’ as a Pretext To Restrict Free Speech?

Pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil was arrested on March 8 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over his involvement in organizing protests in support of Gaza on campus last year.

Khalil had been a prominent figure in student activism. Known for his outspoken role in Gaza solidarity campaigns, he was widely recognized for organizing campus protests, coordinating teach-ins, and amplifying Palestinian voices during the height of last spring’s student protest movement.

“As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other,” he told CNN last year.

“I always say that we are the lucky ones that made it here to speak for our people who are under oppression in Palestine and across the refugee camps and the Palestinian cities,” he said.

The arrest is part of Trump’s directives regarding anti-Semitism on college campuses.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” President Donald Trump wrote on March 10 on his Truth Social platform, describing Khalil as “a radical foreign pro-Hamas student.”

“Many are not students; they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country—never to return again. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of America’s Colleges and Universities to comply. Thank you!” added Trump.

During his first week in office, Trump vowed to deport students who participated in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, which had spread across U.S. university campuses last year. The students called for universities to cut financial ties with companies associated with Israel and demanded a ceasefire to halt the war, which, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza, has killed more than 61,000 people.

Trump has also warned that he would cut off federal funding to schools, colleges and universities that permit what he termed “illegal protests.” Just days before Khalil’s arrest, he revoked $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University.

Khalil Calls Himself ‘Political Prisoner’ After U.S. Immigration Arrest

In a letter made public on Tuesday, Khalil decried his arrest and the conditions detainees face in U.S. immigration facilities.

"My name is Mahmoud Khalil, and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law," the letter begins.

"Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here," the letter continues.

"My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night," Khalil said in the letter, referring to the latest renewed Israeli strikes on Gaza that killed more than 400 Palestinians.

Protests Sweep U.S. as Calls for Mahmoud Khalil’s Release Grow

Khalil’s arrest sparked fear and concern across student and immigrant communities. Hundreds gathered Tuesday at Times Square, demanding his release.

The demonstrators called on President Donald Trump’s administration to stop its plan to deport students like Khalil who participated in protests against the war on Gaza.

Condemnations of Khalil's detention have grown well beyond activist circles, with mounting concerns over what critics describe as a violation of his constitutional right to free speech.

"We had a good turnout—in the thousands—for a last-minute mobilization," Laila Ali, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, told The New Arab.

"The Trump administration and imperialist powers are trying to sow fear in the diaspora's organizing. We know the power of the people is stronger, and we won't back down," she added.

Meanwhile, more than 100 Democratic lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives have questioned the legality of the detention in a letter to the administration of Republican President Donald Trump.

U.S. Vows to Continue Revoking Visas for Pro-Palestinian Activists

The U.S. secretary of state said the administration will continue to revoke visas for foreign students following the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil.

Speaking to CBS News' Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan on Sunday, Marco Rubio said, "If you are in this country, to promote Hamas, to promote terrorist organizations, to participate in vandalism, to participate in acts of rebellion and riots on campus, we never would have let you in if we had known that, and now that we know it, you're going to leave."

He added that the administration is approving visa revocations daily.

Khalil was "going to leave, and so are others."

State Department to Use AI to Scan Social Media and Revoke Visas

Some of the “many to come” are more likely to be identified via the State Department’s newly launched AI-enabled “Catch and Revoke” initiative, which will scrape social media to find foreign nationals who appear to support Hamas and cancel their visas.

The U.S. State Department will use artificial intelligence to revoke the visas of foreign students who are perceived as supporters of Hamas, Axios reported, citing senior State Department officials.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is launching “Catch and Revoke,” AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts, the outlet reported.

The initiative will utilize AI to review student visa holders' social media accounts for expressions of sympathy toward Hamas following Israel's war on Gaza. Officials also plan to examine internal databases, such as the Student Exchange Visitor System, as well as news reports and lawsuits filed by Jewish students, to determine whether any visa holders were arrested in connection with anti-Semitic or allegedly pro-terrorist campus protests.

“We see people marching at our universities and in the streets of our country … calling for Intifada, celebrating what Hamas has done … Those people need to go,” Rubio said a few days after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, which sparked Israel’s war in Gaza.

Trump echoed the same in a January 30 White House fact sheet tied to an executive order aimed at “pro-Hamas” activity, Axios reported: “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice. We will find you, and we will deport you.”

Moreover, Axios said that officials were checking news reports of protests to identify students seen as sympathetic toward the Palestinian group.

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