I was no fan of the student (and other) protests in support of the Palestinians after Hamas brutally attacked innocent Israelis at a music festival on October 7, 2023.
But I would never deny their right to protest. Sure, I thought they went too far in setting up semi-permanent tent cities on campuses, but I also argued that university officials should just leave them alone. By that time it was getting to final exam season and the students would be leaving campus soon anyway. I thought confrontations just fed into the drama and headlines that the protesters wanted.
Now, in his effort to create an authoritarian regime, the convicted felon Donald Trump has ordered the deportation of student leaders in the pro-Palestinian movement. All Americans who care about free speech (which is about half of us) should protest that, regardless of how we feel about what’s going on in the Middle East.
On Sunday ICE agents stormed into a Columbia University apartment building and arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate student and a leader in those pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia. When his lawyer spoke to an ICE official he said that Khalil’s student visa was being rescinded, maybe on the grounds that he stopped being a student in December. But then his lawyer pointed out that he had a green card. Oh, said the ICE official, yeah, well, we’re going to revoke that too, which is just another example of the toxic mix of cruelty and pure incompetence that permeates the Trump administration.
What’s happening here is that Khalil is not being deported for any violation of his status as a visitor to the United States. He’s being punished for having views that Donald Trump doesn’t like.
I might not like Khalil’s views all that much either, but if someone can be carted off simply because they say things that the administration is against, well, that’s a slippery slope that a lot of us are on. Free speech doesn’t need defending when it’s popular or when those in power like it. It needs defending when it isn’t popular or when it’s critical of the powerful.
We need to fight for Khalil because we’re fighting for our own right to free speech.
Who’s next?
YSDA stands for:
Free speech.
The rule of law.
Reason.
Tolerance.
Pluralism.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
But, eggs!
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College students have been political storm troopers for the Democrats as long as I can remember. Shouting down conservative speakers on campus is a time honored tradition- saw it first hand when Eldridge Cleaver came to speak at UW in 1982.
Despite what masculine role model / shotgun expert / failed VP candidate Tim Walz says, misinformation and hate speech absolutely fall under freedom of speech.
Both left and right have their own ways of undermining free speech. Recommended reading: “The cancelling of the American mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott.
Greg’s group FIRE is apolitical. They are defending the Iowa pollster being sued by Trump for election interference.
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Funny how you try to conflate 19-year olds shouting at speakers with the supposed leader of the free world deporting people out the country.
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Funny how you only like free speech when it works for you.
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Of course, shouting down a speaker is itself an expression of freedom of speech. I’m not obligated to sit quietly if someone is in front of me disparaging me, my family, or community, or if they’re advocating for actions that will harm me.
Despite what adjective/ adjective/ adjective One Eye says, misinformation (a euphemism for a “lie” – I think too many people prefer to use the euphemism) does not “absolutely fall under freedom of speech.” I can’t advertise that a car I’m selling gets 150 mpg if that’s not true. I can’t say my snake oil will cure your cancer for the low price of $19.99. I typically can’t lie to the police. Interesting that we can’t lie when we sell a product, but we can lie when we sell a candidacy.
But you saying “the left does it too” isn’t a defense of the subject of the blog post, it’s a deflection. Why deflect?
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I’m not sure the First Amendment protects your right to shout down a speaker. I’m pretty sure the event sponsor can ask you to refrain or remove you if you don’t and not run afoul of the law. In any event, nobody should do that. Suppressing speech isn’t speech.
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Rollie did you really learn nothing from the pandemic? That era’s “misinformation” is today’s accepted facts. It’s a prime example of why speech branded “misinformation” is absolutely free speech.
Always consider what will happen when your enemy is in charge. You don’t want your free speech rights taken away because the Trump administration labels something “misinformation”.
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One Eye,
You’re still deflecting. Please, tell us, do you think the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil is ok? Is this a justified retribution for the “sins” of the Covid era?
I hesitate to continue down the path of deflection by rehashing why I disagree with your viewpoint regarding the events during the covid emergency. We’ve discussed that in the past. You wonder if I’ve learned nothing, but it’s simply that you and I have taken away differing lessons.
But I can’t refrain from echoing our host regarding the notion of proportionality (to which you also sidestepped a direct response). I don’t recall any anti-mask protesters arrested simply for expressing anti-mask views. I bet supporters of the Palestinian people would much prefer having their tweets deleted than be thrown in jail (which is explicitly what one R senator advocated today – for ALL protesters!).
Dave,
I do agree that if I’m on private property I should have legal consequences if I don’t abide by the property owner’s will. But if someone is speaking and advocating any type of harm to a person’s family or community, I don’t fault that person for shouting them down and accepting the consequences.
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Thank you. Trump supporters often cited “Biden free speech suppression” as a motivation for their vote…
I am ok with the idea that supporters of terrorist organizations can have their green cards revoked. I’m also ok with the suppression of lies that endanger public health and safety. Outside of emergencies, free speech should have few but reasonable limits, erring on the side of permissibility, and under the scrutiny of our courts.
However, I have not seen any evidence in the news that this individual is a supporter of a terrorist organization. It seems more likely that criticism of the Israeli government is being interpreted by our government as support of Hamas. They already lie in their claim that criticism of the Israeli government is anti-Semitic.
Which is as absurd as saying criticism of the US government is the same as supporting Al-Qaeda, or criticism of the French government is the same as hating French people.
Watch out, because Trump has promised to clamp down on “illegal protests” but he doesn’t let us know what types of protests he believes are illegal. It’s not difficult to imagine what his interpretation might be. Who’s next indeed.
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