Free Speech Group points out that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has accused Halil of being a major activity “along with Hamas, the designated terrorist organization.”
However, analysts note that departmental allegations do not fall short of more specific claims. For example, US law prohibits anyone within a country’s jurisdiction from providing “material support” to terrorist organizations.
The rationale provided for Khalil’s arrest is argued by experts and is very widely argued that it could be caught up in a critical voice of Israeli and the US foreign policy.
“It’s such a huge loophole that you can get through it,” Will Creeley, legal director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire), a free speech group, told Al Jazeera.
“I think perhaps the most dangerous thing at this moment is that the rhetoric coming out of today’s administration is that people across the country think twice before criticizing the government, whether it’s the US or the Israeli government, and that cold is a real problem,” he added.
Efforts to link criticism of Israel with support for terrorism appear to reflect Project 2025. This is a controversial set of policy proposals for Trump’s second term, compiled by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank.
The document cited alarms about a vast interpretation of executive power and views on issues like the pro-Palestinian protests.
One project 2025 suggestion states that the pro-Palestinian protest is “part of the highly organized global Hamas Support Network (HSN) and thus effectively part of the Terrorist Support Network.”
Greer told the media that when he spoke to Ice Agent over the phone, he apparently had false information about Halil’s immigration status and was trying to cancel his student visa.
A Columbia graduate student until December, Halil was previously in the US on a student visa, but later obtained a green card, making him a legal permanent resident.
Greer said when she notified ice agents that he was a permanent resident, they said his green card would be revoked instead.
Nitia Nathan Pineau, a policy attorney for the Immigration Law Resource Centre, told Al Jazeera that green card status can be revoked depending on circumstances, such as immigration applications and discovery of fraudulent information in certain criminal activities.
“I have never seen any information about criminal convictions or arrests,” she said.
“It sounds like the ice agent has unilaterally decided that no matter what the immigrant status he had, it doesn’t matter.”
Greer said she and Halil’s wife were told he was being held in a New Jersey immigration detention facility, but when they arrived he was not there. Khalil was reportedly moved to a Louisiana detention center.
“This is a tactic that Ice loves to use, transporting someone to a facility far from legal support, the community, and the people they love,” Nathan Pineau said. “It raises the psychological tension in detention.”
Greer is challenging Halil’s detention, and federal courts are scheduled to hear the case on March 12th.
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