“I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
This quote is attributed to Patrick Henry (one of the “Founding Fathers”) during the discussions relevant to the (now) first amendment during the 1st Session of Congress (1789-1791); the quote is also attributed to Voltaire, a French Enlightenment philosopher and writer. It is entirely possible that Henry heard about Voltaire’s quote and decided to recycle it. But who said it first is not relevant to today’s discussion!
We have heard in the news, both Fox and mainstream, of the deportation of green-card holder Mahmoud Khalil for, according to our federal government, being anti-semitic and a supporter of Hamas. His own words however, do not support that conclusion. In an interview with CNN reporter Chelsea Bailey on March 12, 2025, Khalil stated: “There is no place, of course, for anti-Semitism. What we are witnessing is anti-Palestinian sentiment that is taking different forms, and anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism [are] some of those forms.”
The group Khalil is a member of, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, was asking that Columbia University stop investing its $14.8 billion endowment in companies supporting Israel’s government, close the University outpost in Tel Aviv, and end collaboration with Israeli universities. (For those of you with long memories, you might recall similar actions taken by universities including Columbia relative to South Africa’s Apartheid government until its collapse in 1993-1994.)
Khalil has not been accused of breaking any laws. He has not had a day in court. Yet the government of the United States of America, more precisely the Trump administration, has taken him into detention, and deported him, for speaking his mind, for protesting, for caring. You and I may not agree with Khalil, or with his stance about Israel and the war it is conducting in Gaza, but I ask you: Should a person be deported for speaking their mind? In a country that prides itself on the first amendment; in a country were there have always been people whose ideas did not mesh with the administration at the time; in a country where we are allowed to have, and voice, our own opinions, should this have happened?
Khalil did not vandalize any buildings; he did not storm police barricades; he did not break into government buildings; he did not participate in a hunt to hang anyone. The people who did those things on Jan 6th have been pardoned, but a person speaking out, exercising the 1st amendment rights, is deported?
There is a lot wrong with this picture, I believe.
I’d like to know what you think about this issue. Please feel free to leave comments in the space below.
R.M.. “Bob” Hartman