US Border Czar Tom Homan stated that Mahmoud Khalil would be the first of many noncitizens who would be deported from the US for their roles in antisemitic demonstrations and protests in which the law was violated and support for terrorism was expressed.
“That’s just one out of many," Homan said in an interview on the "Varney & Co.” program on Fox Business. “I mean, did he violate the terms of his visa? Did he violate the terms of his residency here, you know, committing crimes, attacking Israeli students, locking down buildings, destroying property? “Absolutely, any resident alien who commits a crime is eligible for deportation.”
Khalil, a Palestinian Arab former graduate student who played a key role in last year’s anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, was detained by ICE agents on Saturday night and faces deportation. He had been one of the most visible figures during the protests, serving as a negotiator between student activists and university officials as they sought to dismantle the anti-Israel encampment on campus. His decision to act as a public representative made him one of the few demonstrators openly identified with the movement.
The New York Post reported that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio received intelligence that Khalil presented a national security threat to the country.
On Monday, a federal judge in New York temporarily blocked the deportation of Khalil.
Homan said that the judge's order blocking Khalil's deportation would not deter the government from continuing to crack down on the terror-supporting activists who have broken the law and made college campuses unsafe for Jewish students.
“We’re going to send a strong message to say, anybody here on a foreign visa, that you’re given a great right to come to the greatest country on Earth and study in our colleges,” Homan said. “But when you come here to study, you got to obey the laws of this country. You got to obey the requirements of that visa to be lawful while you’re here. So, it’s a great privilege to study in this country, but, when we give you that right to study in this country, don’t violate our laws."