DAVIS: The US Should Not Tolerate Anti-American Migrants

President Donald Trump promised during his successful campaign to restore common sense to the U.S. immigration system, and that includes removing green card and visa holders who are hostile to America and our way of life.  

Earlier this month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Mahmoud Khalil, a foreign national from Syria who allegedly was a ring leader in the anti-Israel protests that engulfed Columbia University in chaos for months.  

“We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted following the arrest.  

During the protests, Khalil allegedly acted as a negotiator on behalf of the students while many camped out on and occupied university property. Khalil was also allegedly an activist for a radical organization which has called for the “total eradication of Western civilization,” and announced their intention to lead a global intifada.

The organization, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, has celebrated and justified the Hamas-led terrorist attacks which killed more than 1,000 Israelis on October 7, 2023. Foreign nationals who advocate for terrorist organizations have no right to remain in the U.S., but the Biden Administration refused to hold them accountable even as the chaos engulfed elite U.S. academic institutions. (RELATED: DAVIS: There Should Be No Price Tag For Border Security)

The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) filed a lawsuit last year to uncover if and how the Biden Administration had collaborated with universities to protect these anti-American migrants from accountability. The Trump Administration, however, has made clear they do not intend to allow anti-American foreign nationals to foment chaos and disorder on U.S. college campuses any longer. The president has promised that Khalil will only be the first of many anti-American agitators to be detained.  

“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 will not tolerate it,” Trump said.  

Anti-border groups were quick to defend Khalil and attack the Trump Administration’s efforts to remove hostile foreign nationals from the country, claiming that doing so violates the First Amendment.  

“The First Amendment protects everyone in the U.S. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate,” an ACLU attorney said in a statement.  

The free speech argument has been a popular one employed to defend Khalil, but it falls short. Americans, of course, have a constitutional right to speak and protest. Khalil, however, is not an American citizen, but a foreign national who allegedly has helped lead an organization, which has called for the overthrow of Western civilization and celebrated international terrorist organizations.  

Additionally, activities such as the occupation of university property and the spray-painting of graffiti on said property — all of which happened during these protests — are not First Amendment-protected activities, but criminal violations. Even if Khalil is not found not to have violated criminal law, the U.S. has no obligation to allow him to remain in the country. A criminal conviction is not required to strip a hostile foreign national of his or her green card.  

It should go without saying that foreign nationals who advocate for the destruction of Western Civilization are not good candidates for admission into the U.S. The U.S., like any sovereign nation, has a right to expect aliens it admits to assimilate into its culture, customs, and laws. How can someone who espouses such violent hatred for the West be expected to assimilate into the nation that has served as the beacon of Western civilization for generations? (DAVIS: How Will Trump’s Deportation Plan Work?)

The U.S. does not have an obligation to admit foreign nationals who hate the country. In fact, they have an obligation to remove them, and that is exactly what the Trump Administration is doing. Importing Third World migrants with dangerous anti-American ideologies is actively harmful to the well–being of our nation, and all Americans should oppose it. Any foreign national who espouses hatred of America and sympathy for terrorists who want to destroy us should not be welcomed here. 

Foreign nationals who are allowed to come to the U.S. should be grateful, not contemptuous of the nation that gave them that opportunity. Khalil was awarded an opportunity billions of people across the globe dream of having. He was graciously given the chance to leave a war-torn country for the wealthiest nation in the world, awarded a green card, and an opportunity to earn a degree from one of the nation’s premier universities.

Instead of keeping his head down and being appreciative for his opportunity, Khalil allegedly decided to spend his time fomenting chaos, division, and disorder against the country that gave him so much. In many ways, Khalil’s story is a tragic one. He had the opportunity to escape Syria and live the American dream, but threw it all away because of his deep-seated hatred of the country that welcomed him in.  

Allowing foreign nationals filled with hatred of the U.S. into the country not only threatens our national security but poses an existential threat to our nation. For this reason and others, the Trump Administration’s decision to detain and attempt to remove Khalil and other hostile foreign nationals is the right one.  

William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.