ACLU Calls Latest Immigrant Tracking Scheme Discriminatory and Ineffective

NEW YORK — In a fight to get recent Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil back to his family, his legal team filed an amended habeas petition and complaint with the federal court in the Southern District of New York, challenging his detention by ICE. Last Saturday, the Trump administration illegally arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, in direct retaliation for his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights. Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked a vague and rarely-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that says the government may deport people if there are “reasonable grounds” to believe their presence in the country “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” The White House has stated that it seeks to revoke Mr. Khalil’s green card because he organized group protests, distributed flyers, and served as the lead negotiator of the Gaza solidarity encampments at Columbia. He has not been charged with or accused of any crime, as the Trump administration has freely admitted. A team of lawyers, including Amy Greer from Dratel & Lewis, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and CLEAR represented him in emergency filings over the weekend, resulting in a court order to ensure Mr. Khalil would not be deported as his case proceeded. Shortly after, the American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) joined his legal team. The amended petition argues that his detention violates his constitutional rights, including free speech and due process, and goes beyond the government’s legal authority. The following are quotes from Mr. Khalil’s legal team: Amy Greer, associate attorney with Dratel & Lewis: “Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and detention is an escalation of the U.S. Government’s continual efforts to suppress the speech and association rights of student organizers seeking to hold the U.S. accountable for its facilitation of the genocide being exacted upon the people of Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. We the People should stand up against these repressive efforts and protect those rights so critical to the fabric of our nation that they were included in the First Amendment of our nation’s Constitution.” Ramzi Kassem, founding director of CLEAR: “What happened to Mahmoud is nothing short of extraordinary, shocking, and outrageous. It should outrage anyone who believes that speech should be free in the United States of America. It simply cannot be the case that government agents can disappear Mahmoud or anyone else, at night, on the streets of New York City because the current U.S. government, the current administration dislikes what you have to say. We think it won’t fly in the federal court, it won’t fly in an immigration court, and it certainly won’t fly in the court of public opinion.” Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with ACLU’s Center for Democracy: “This is a clear attempt by President Trump to make an example out of Mr. Khalil and silence dissent across the country. No matter what your views are on Israel & Palestine, we should all be terrified of a government incarcerating its residents for their political opinions.” Baher Azmy, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights: “The Trump administration has been targeting Palestinian human rights activists from day one, smearing them with every tired and empty trope. Rather than engage with its own role in the genocide and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, the administration is using the the government's full power to make an example of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student leader beloved in his campus community and known for his integrity. His arrest and attempted deportation for what is constitutionally protected speech is a replay of McCarthyist repression that is intolerable to a democracy.” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union: “With today’s filing, we are making it crystal clear that no president can arrest, detain, or deport anyone for disagreeing with the government. The Trump administration has selectively targeted Mr. Khalil, a student, husband, and father-to-be who has not been accused of a single crime, to send a message of just how far they will go to crack down on dissent. But we at the NYCLU and ACLU won’t stand for it — under the Constitution, the Trump administration has no basis to continue this cruel weaponization of Mr. Khalil’s life. The Court must release Mr. Khalil immediately and let him go home to his family in New York, where he belongs. Ideas are not illegal, and dissent is not grounds for deportation.” The amended complaint can be found here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/khalil-v-trump?document=Amended-Petition-for-Writ-of-Habeas-Corpus-and-Complaint

Whether a legal permanent resident of the U.S. can be arrested and detained on the basis of their political speech and advocacy.

NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union today published an open letter to colleges and universities nationwide urging them to reject any federal pressure to surveil or punish international students and faculty based on constitutionally protected speech. This letter is prompted by two executive orders — Executive Order 14161, titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats” signed on Jan. 20, 2025, and Executive Order 14188, titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism,” signed on Jan. 29, 2025 — and related communications from the White House. The guidance is especially timely after an early morning Truth Social post from President Trump threatening to stop federal funding for “any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” and proposing that “agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.” “It is disturbing to see the White House threatening freedom of speech and academic freedom on U.S. college campuses so blatantly. We stand in solidarity with university leaders in their commitment to free speech, open debate, and peaceful dissent on campus,” said Cecillia Wang, legal director of the ACLU and co-author of the letter. “Trump’s latest coercion campaign, attempting to turn university administrators against their own students and faculty, harkens back to the McCarthy era and is at odds with American constitutional values and the basic mission of universities.” According to the ACLU, the White House is attempting to pressure university officials to target immigrant and international students, faculty, and staff, including holders of non-immigrant visas and lawful permanent residents or others on a path to U.S. citizenship, for exercising their First Amendment rights. The letter outlines four key principles universities should adhere to when addressing campus speech: Colleges and universities should encourage robust discussion and exploration of ideas by students, faculty, and staff, regardless of their nationality or immigration status. Nothing obligates universities to act as deputies in immigration law enforcement — to the contrary, universities do not and should not veer so far from their core mission for good reasons. Schools must protect the privacy of all students, including immigrant and international students. Schools must abide by the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. “The federal government cannot mandate expulsion of students or threaten funding cuts to punish constitutionally protected speech on campus,” said Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “While the administration can enforce Title VI to ensure a learning environment free from harassment, it cannot force universities into adopting restrictive speech codes that silence the viewpoints the government disfavors.” This is the fourth set of guidance from the ACLU to universities since 2023. Dozens of ACLU affiliates have taken legal action, conducted know your rights trainings, or issued additional guidance related to protest on campuses.

Immigrants’ rights advocates sued the Trump administration to halt the transfer of immigrants from the United States to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba under President Trump’s recent order.