Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
March 13, 2025
My mother, of Blessed memory, taught me as a child, when invited to someone’s home do not arrive empty handed. To my mother, unless bringing wine, that meant homemade baked goods, not boxed. In the case of Syrian-born Mahmoud Khalil, protester and agitator extraordinaire, he brought to the United States, his host country while a student, hatred, threats of violence and bodily harm, intimidation, harassment, demands of his host, and provocation to incite violence.
Although in the United States legally, on a student visa and in possession of a green card, as a legal permanent resident, Khalil is rabidly anti-American, antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-western values, pro-Hamas, pro-jihad, and pro-Palestinian state - to supplant Israel, a distributor of pro-Hamas propaganda, and clearly falls into the category of “deportable aliens,” as per 8 U.S. Code § 1227.
Khalil, 31, is no longer a student at Columbia University, nor is there any discernible proof he attended its sister school Barnard College. His appearances on both campuses are acts of willful trespassing. Yet, at the very least, since early 2024, he has been visibly active on both campuses inciting to riot and violence against the Jewish community at both Columbia and Barnard - student and faculty alike, organizing protests, making demands against both schools such as divesting any legal, financial interests they have in Israel. Another demand calls for the immediate reinstatement of expelled students, removed for their antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-American, pro-Hamas, pro-jihadi behavior.
Such behavior puts people’s lives in danger, and the incitement is actually a threat to the national security of the United States. No one has the right to jeopardize the safety and security of anyone in the United States. As a foreigner, a guest in this country, Khalil does not have the right to remain here. Yet, this raises two important issues - free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and familial ties - Khalil is married to an American woman who is eight months pregnant.
Before anyone commences clamoring about the separation of parents and children, as is the far-left’s mantra in an effort to protect illegal aliens in their sanctuary cities and states, a foreigner, even one here legally as Khalil is, is not entitled to more rights than an American citizen. Tens of thousands of American citizens are incarcerated for crimes they have committed and clearly are separated from their spouses, partners, and children. Based on the belief system of the far-left loons, none of those people should be behind bars either. That is patently insane.
As for Khalil’s First Amendment rights, the First Amendment does not protect incendiary speech that jeopardizes the safety and lives of others - be they Jewish students attempting to make their way to their classes on a daily basis or anyone else navigating their way around campus, as is their right to do so without fear of harm or verbal invective. Yet, Senate Democrats serving on the Judiciary Committee have supported Khalil, for what reason, other than to oppose President Donald Trump, is unknown.
They include Cory Booker (NJ), RIchard Blumenthal (CT), Chris Coons (DE), Dick Durbin (IL), Mazie Hirono (HI), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Alex Padilla (CA), Adam Schiff (CA), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Peter Welch (VT) - most of whom are some of the most liberal members of the Senate.
Khalil is being detained in an immigration detention center in Louisiana. His deportation is being sought on the grounds he violated the Immigration and Nationality Act. Section 237 (a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as codified in 8 U.S. Code § 1227, says “An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”
In April 2024 Khalil appeared on a Hamas-supported network. Khalil said his support of Hamas and his antisemitic demonstrations and protests were “a gift for the campus.” On April 29, 2024 in response to a question from a CNN reporter whether or not he would leave or end the encampments at Columbia, Khalil said, “of course not. The university is the one who should be listening to us, they should listen to their student body who are demanding that the university end their investment in the war in Palestine. Our demands are the divestment from the Israeli occupation that they are profiting and contributing to the genocide of our people. Once again the university is so stubborn,” said Khalil, calling for liberation by any means necessary.
This is not a Constitutionally protected activity - supporting terrorist organizations, giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States, thus the arrest by ICE of Khalil on March 9 of this year, as a direct order of the State Department. “This is not just about free speech. This is about people who don’t have the right to be in the United States to begin with,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way,” said Rubio, adding that the visas of Hamas supporters will be revoked. Rubio is exercising his authority appropriately.
“This is the first arrest of many more to come,” wrote Trump on X, in what could become precedent-setting. Guests in the United States are here thanks to the largesse of this country and are expected to follow the laws, as are citizens of the United States. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration won’t tolerate it. President Donald J. Trump,” via X, @WhiteHouse.
“These Jewish students don’t feel safe. Many of these Jewish students have been harrassed repeatedly just trying to get to class,” said former Army Intelligence Captain Jeremy Hunt this week on the Fox News program “Outnumbered.” A green card is a “privilege, not a green light to start breaking our laws, harassing students, stopping the academic work that’s supposed to be going on. And also, for what? To support Hamas? I think it’s ridiculous. And not only is President Trump right to withdraw the funding, detain this individual, but also, look at the funding of these non-profit groups funding these protests. A lot of them have ties with Hamas. We’ve got to look at all the funding that’s been going on. These protests didn’t happen randomly. This was funded specifically by people who hate our country,” said Hunt.
The withdrawal of funding noted by Hunt is the $400 million in grants cancelled by the Trump administration due to Columbia University’s inability to control and end the rampant antisemitism pervasive on that campus and Barnard. Columbia president pro-tem Katherine Armstrong took to the media, played victim and cried poverty over the loss of the $400 million noting an immediate hiring freeze and fewer PhD candidates admitted.
“There is no question that the cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research, and other critical functions of the university impacting students, faculty, staff, research and patient care,” said Armstrong.
What Armstrong did not mention is the $14.8 billion endowment, as of the end of FY-24 (https://endowment.giving.columbia.edu/endowment-performance-and-management/) (tax free) Columbia is sitting on, with a healthy return on its investment. Make no mistake, I do not begrudge the university, any school, for its ability to raise money on its own. This is not money coming from the government, which means not from unwilling taxpayers. The endowment money comes from willing taxpayers, as it should. How much of a rainy day is Columbia waiting for before it dips into its precious endowment. In fact, why aren’t these endowments taxed? The university, any school, for that matter, is not just a fundraising machine. Its first responsibility is to provide for the safety and protection of its student body - against religious discrimination and harassment, sexual predators on campus, and any other criminal activity that makes a campus an unsafe place for its residents - its paying customers.
House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke of his first hand experience visiting Columbia. “I went to face down the angry mob at Columbia at the height of that stuff - when the pro-Palestinians, pro-Hamas protesters there - I’m telling you, this is my own observation, not something I read in the newspaper - it was dangerous. The administration there refused to take control of that campus. …This madness has to stop. We have to get control of it. This guy [Khalil] apparently was a mastermind of those very things; people screaming at me, wanting to rip me limb from limb because I was there talking about moral clarity and how there’s a right and a wrong. They disrupted the campus. They threatened physical violence of their fellow students. If you’re on a student visa, and you’re in America, and you’re an aspiring young terrorist who wants to prey upon your Jewish classmates, we’re gonna arrest your… tail, and we’re gonna send you home where you belong,” said Johnson.
Adding insult to injury, a raucous protest rally held at and IN Trump Tower in New York City sponsored by the self-hating Jews of Jewish Voice for Peace resulted in 150 people storming in and around the building. Their ugly behavior netted 98 arrests. These so-called Jews demonstrated their solidarity for and with Khalil, demanding the release of this virulent anti-American, anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-Hamas, pro-jihadi inciter. Most of the attendees wore pre-printed t-shirts and signs demonstrating the inorganic nature of this paid-for protest.
Mahmoud Khalil has every right to hate whomever he wishes. That right ends when it becomes a call for violence, threats on people’s safety, preventing students from attending classes, or just general harassment. The same is true of criticism of Israel. Criticizing policy is perfectly acceptable, and encouraged in places where a modicum of free speech exists. Calling for the destruction of the only Jewish nation on earth, or other legitimate nations for that matter, is also not a protected right.
Honest discourse should be the bellwether by which America leads the world and encourages other nations to employ. When that appropriate behavior descends into the madness that is Khalil and his minions, sending him and his fellow travelers home is not only the smart thing, but it is the right thing, and the legal thing. It is a privilege for a non-American citizen to enter, and be a guest in the United States. Those who violate the rules and laws of the United States will, and must pay the price. Don’t take for granted the privilege you are being granted, whether as a student, a business traveler, or a vacationing family. Play by the rules, you are more than welcome. Violate them and you will be dispatched forthwith. It’s time to not just Make America Great Again, but it’s time to Make America American Again.
Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.