CHICAGO: Deporting green-card holder Mahmoud Khalil from the US would fuel widespread persecution and targeting of Arabs and Muslims who “dare to criticize” Israel, a civil rights attorney told Arab News.

David Chami represented 22 of 27 students who were expelled from Arizona State University after being accused of trespassing and damage to property.

But he said neither his 22 clients nor Columbia University student Khalil committed any serious offense that would justify any form of punishment.

“Without a doubt, what ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the government are doing violates the Constitution and the fundamental laws of this country,” Chami added.

Khalil’s case “could open the door to thousands of expulsions if they want to continue targeting and harassing students.

“I mean, if you start alleging that your opinions about Palestine or Israel are enough for me to associate you with supporting terrorism, all of a sudden everyone’s out, right? Because anyone who’s anti-genocide, who’s against Israeli policies, becomes a target.”

The real aim “is to shut everybody up,” Chami said, adding that under US law, Khalil or any green-card holder would have to be convicted of a “serious crime” before being deported.

“They’re just going to try to throw Mahmoud Khalil out of the country extra-judicially,” Chami said. “If that happens, all of a sudden you’ll start to see green-card holders becoming targeted for their speech, things they said online on social media, and not even being at a protest at all.

“What’s next? They might target former green-card holders who are now American citizens, and people who weren’t born here. They might try to undo their citizenship.”

Chami said green-card holders, who are one step away from becoming official citizens, can only be deported after being convicted of very specific crimes under US immigration laws.

“They include crimes of moral turpitude like fraud, theft, violence, or lying on your application,” he added.

“They’d have to commit some sort of aggravated felony like murder, or drug trafficking, or some other drug offense.

“You could be accused of a crime, but that still wouldn’t provide a basis for deportation. You’d have to be convicted first. … But they aren’t trying to prosecute or convict him.”

Khalil, the son of Palestinian refugees, was born in Syria and holds Algerian citizenship. After earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Lebanese American University, he enrolled at Columbia University in 2022, studying in the School of International and Public Affairs. He completed his studies last December and was scheduled to graduate in May.

Khalil was arrested at his home on March 8 by ICE officers. His attempted expulsion has fueled an atmosphere of anti-Arab hate and Islamophobia that is being parroted by American traditional and social media, Chami said.

Although US District Judge Jesse Furman on Wednesday extended an order that temporarily blocks Khalil’s deportation, Chami said he is concerned that ICE could expel him without completing the judicial process. “The question is, where would they expel him to?” Chami asked.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee called Khalil’s arrest “an extreme and blatant act of political retaliation for his First Amendment-protected advocacy.”

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said the arrest “is of enormous concern to academic freedom and freedom of speech.”

Mach: The bodies of at least 25 people, including 21 hostages, killed in a train siege by separatist gunmen in Pakistan were retrieved from the site on Thursday ahead of the first funerals, officials said.
Security forces said they freed more than 340 train passengers in a two-day rescue operation that ended late on Wednesday after a separatist group bombed a remote railway track in mountainous southwest Balochistan and stormed a train with around 450 passengers on board.
The assault was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of a number of separatist groups that accuse outsiders of plundering natural resources in Balochistan near the borders with Afghanistan and Iran.
Death tolls have varied, with the military saying in an official statement that “21 innocent hostages” were killed by the militants as well as four soldiers in the rescue operation.
A railway official in Balochistan said the bodies of 25 people were transported by train away from the hostage site to the nearby town of Mach on Thursday morning.
“Deceased were identified as 19 military passengers, one police and one railway official, while four bodies are yet to be identified,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
A senior local military official overseeing operations confirmed the details.
An army official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, earlier put the military toll at 28, including 27 off-duty soldiers taken hostage.
Passengers who escaped from the siege said after walking for hours through rugged mountains to reach safety that they saw people being shot dead by militants.
The first funerals are expected to take place on Thursday.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif was also expected to visit Balochistan, his office said.
“The Prime Minister expressed grief and sorrow over the martyrdom of security personnel and train passengers during the operation,” it said in a statement.
'Our women pleaded'
The BLA released a video of an explosion on the track followed by dozens of militants emerging from hiding places in the mountains to attack the train.
Attacks by separatist groups have soared in the past few years, mostly targeting security forces and ethnic groups from outside the province.
Muhammad Naveed, who managed to escape, told AFP: “They asked us to come out of the train one by one. They separated women and asked them to leave. They also spared elders.”
“They asked us to come outside, saying we will not be harmed. When around 185 people came outside, they chose people and shot them down.”
Babar Masih, a 38-year-old Christian laborer, told AFP on Wednesday he and his family walked for hours through rugged mountains to reach a train that could take them to a makeshift hospital on a railway platform.
“Our women pleaded with them and they spared us,” he said.
“They told us to get out and not look back. As we ran, I noticed many others running alongside us.”
Security forces have been battling a decades-long insurgency in impoverished Balochistan but last year saw a surge in violence in the province compared with 2023, according to the independent Center for Research and Security Studies.