Marco Rubio Basically Admitted Why the Trump Administration Arrested Columbia Student Mahmoud Khalil

Secretary of State Marco Rubio produced a notably slender one-and-a-half-page memo as evidence for the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil. An immigration judge is set to rule Friday whether the government can continue detaining him during immigration proceedings.

The memo delivered Wednesday, in response to a Louisiana immigration judge’s order, states that Khalil—a legal permanent US resident and Columbia University graduate student who served as a campus activist spokesperson during pro-Palestinian demonstrations—engaged in “otherwise lawful” activities. But it went on to cite an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which it claimed empowers the secretary of state to “personally determine” whether Khail should have remained in the country. Rubio’s memo also noted that US foreign policy “champions core American interests and American citizens” and that the protests Khalil participated in “would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective.”

Johnny Sinodis, one of Khalil’s lawyers, argues that the memo doesn’t meet the evidentiary standard required under immigration law. “The Rubio memo is completely devoid of any factual recitation as to why exactly Mahmoud’s presence in the United States is adverse to a compelling US government interest,” he said on Thursday.

Arrested early last month by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Khalil was detained briefly in New Jersey before being sent to Louisiana, where he has remained since. Rubio said he’d revoked Khalil’s green card after the fact. Now, presented with the opportunity to provide a legal basis for his deportation, the administration has—whether or not they intended to—seemingly proven that there is no legal basis for his removal.

Khalil is just one victim of Trump’s broad, legally dubious crackdown on free speech. As of mid-march, at least 50 universities, including Cornell and Yale, were under investigation by the Education Department for allegedly promoting DEI policies. The administration has also halted federal funding for numerous schools, like Northwestern and Cornell, over allegations of antisemitism and racial discrimination. Meanwhile, students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, from Stanford to University of Michigan, have come under disciplinary action and even criminal punishment.

In a letter sent from jail last month, Khalil stated that his being targeted “was part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.” “Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances,” he wrote. “I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”