Trump is bringing back McCarthyism to go after Mahmoud Khalil
Three days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, the White House confirmed the recent Columbia graduate hadnat been charged with a crime. Instead, Khalilas arrest had been personally ordered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
aThe secretary of state has the right to revoke a green card or visa for individuals who are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States,a White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Khalil, she claimed, had organized group protests" that disrupted classes and harassed Jewish American students. On top of that, she said, he had distributed pro-Hamas propaganda: flyers with the logo of Hamas.a
Contrary to Leavitt's statement, Rubio canat just snap his fingers and order someoneas deportation. But the provision of the law she cited, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), is very real. It's an obscure McCarthy-era statute passed at the height of Cold War paranoia aAmeant to help root out subversives" from every area of public life.A
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on the grounds for Mahmoud Kahlilas detention and possible deportatio …