\n<\/p>\n
For the conservative<\/span> pundit class, few issues have been as central to their cause as their supposed defense of free speech. Over the last decade, they have built a powerful political movement revolting against the force of so-called cancel culture, which they argued had restricted permissible dialogue and punished free thinkers willing to speak their own truths.\u00a0<\/p>\n But as the Trump regime moves to expel from this country a Palestinian U.S. permanent resident based solely on his political expression, many of those free speech warriors have changed their tune. The arrest and attempted deportation of Columbia University graduate and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil demonstrates the clear hypocrisy of many conservative voices when it comes to free speech in America. Conservatives who previously opposed \u201ccancel culture\u201d on the grounds of defending free speech are now quick to support state violence against critics of Israel through the arrest and expulsion of those critics from U.S. society.<\/p>\n On March 8, officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrived at the home of Khalil and arrested him, separating him from his wife, a U.S. citizen who is 8 months pregnant. He was ultimately moved to a detention facility in Louisiana, a friendly jurisdiction <\/a>for government cases against immigrants<\/a>. Though Trump\u2019s desire to immediately deport the legal U.S. permanent resident has been temporarily blocked by Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York, the threat against him remains. After speaking with Khalil on Tuesday, his attorney Amy Greer said<\/a> that he \u201cis moved by the extraordinarily broad and steadfast support he has received from a variety of communities that understand what is at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n Khalil faces no criminal charges, and no evidence has been offered to substantiate the Trump administration\u2019s propagandistic claims that he is a \u201cnational security threat\u201d who was \u201cinciting violence,\u201d in the words <\/a>of Trump border czar Tom Homan. Indeed, top White House and Republican Party officials have essentially admitted that Khalil has not committed any crime. Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified his attempt to deport Khalil by claiming<\/a> \u2014 without evidence \u2014 that he supports Hamas and \u201cantisemitic activities.\u201d This demonstrates that even as Rubio grossly misrepresents Khalil\u2019s politics, he is actually attempting to deport Khalil because of his alleged politics<\/em>. When asked what crime Khalil committed, House Speaker Mike Johnson reverted<\/a> to propaganda talking points.<\/p>\n It is worth noting what Khalil has actually said. In a 2024 interview<\/a> with CNN,\u00a0Khalil stated, \u201cAs a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other. Our movement is a movement for social justice and freedom and equality for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps that is why large numbers of Jewish protesters took over the lobby<\/a> of Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday to demand Khalil\u2019s release.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has argued<\/a> that it has the power to deport Khalil under the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, which states, \u201cAn 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.\u201d But the White House has not shown how Khalil\u2019s advocacy against Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza would cause \u201cserious adverse foreign policy consequences,\u201d unless one considers it \u201cadverse\u201d to end U.S. support for that genocide. Under the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping interpretation of this language, any legal permanent resident of the U.S. who criticizes any aspect of Trump\u2019s foreign policy \u2014 from Trump\u2019s desire to occupy Greenland to his gross abandonment of Ukraine<\/a> \u2014 could be deported. This is a clear attack on the First Amendment and constitutionally protected free speech.<\/p>\n A wide range of conservative voices who have frequently criticized \u201ccancel culture\u201d have been quick to defend the Trump administration\u2019s ugly actions. Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk is one example, having made cancel culture his calling card<\/a> while justifying<\/a> the deportation of Khalil. Kirk called him \u201ca Hamas propagandist\u201d and claimed without evidence that he \u201cdistributed pamphlets on Hamas\u2019 propaganda\u201d \u2014 claims that remain unsubstantiated and are\u00a0fundamentally about political speech. Dinesh D\u2019Souza followed the same path, arguing<\/a> against \u201ccancel culture\u201d on the one hand while calling<\/a> for Khalil\u2019s expulsion based on his alleged offensive speech against \u201cWestern civilization,\u201d an allegation that actually appears to be based on a fake Instagram post<\/a>. Ben Shapiro has often opined<\/a> against cancellation campaigns that have targeted everything from slave-owning historical figures to present-day conservative media personalities like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan. However, Shapiro has retweeted multiple voices on X arguing in support of Khalil\u2019s removal from the U.S., while sharing nothing regarding the free speech concerns or unconstitutionality of this action. The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n To be fair, there have been exceptions to this hypocrisy. Ann Coulter, in her typical style, stated on X<\/a>, \u201cThere\u2019s almost no one I don\u2019t want to deport, but unless they\u2019ve committed a crime, isn\u2019t this a violation of the First Amendment?\u201d Candace Owen has questioned<\/a> the absence of criminal charges against Khalil and debunked<\/a> conservative claims regarding what Khalil has said.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prominent conservative publications that have argued against \u201ccancel culture\u201d have staked out divergent positions. The Wall Street Journal has been sympathetic to deporting<\/a> Khalil over supposedly \u201cpro-terrorist\u201d speech, due to the student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest stating, \u201cWe support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance.\u201d It raises the question: If a Ukrainian student group took this stand, would the Wall Street Journal support their deportation too? Maya Sulkin, a reporter for Bari Weiss\u2019s Free Press, argued that Khalil\u2019s deportation was not about free speech but on-campus crimes. Of course, Khalil has not been charged with or convicted of any crimes, something Sulkin failed to mention. In contrast, Reason Magazine, whose tagline is \u201cFree Minds and Free Markets,\u201d has published multiple pieces<\/a> that are skeptical<\/a> or critical<\/a> of Trump\u2019s actions<\/a> against Khalil.\u00a0<\/p>\n What emerges from the above examples is that too many conservative voices are quick to defend free speech when it serves their ideological goals, but are equally quick to endorse the violent repression of free speech when the speech in question runs counter to those goals.\u00a0 This targeting of Khalil by Trump and the conservative media ecosystem is just the latest escalation in a decadeslong campaign to silence critics of Israel in the U.S. These strategies<\/a> have included unfounded claims that critics of Israel<\/a> are antisemitic<\/a>, denying opponents of Israeli policy funding<\/a> or employment<\/a>, calling them \u201cterrorists<\/a>,\u201d blocking or removing people from elected office, and preventing <\/a>advocates for Palestinian freedom from participating<\/a> in public discourse<\/a>. The use of these tactics is by no means limited to Republicans, as the Kamala Harris presidential campaign demonstrated when it said no to having a Palestinian speaker<\/a> at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n Trump has promised<\/a> that Khalil\u2019s arrest is \u201cthe first arrest of many to come.\u201d It is worth noting that this policy statement comes directly from the Heritage Foundation, the same conservative think tank that brought us Project 2025. The Heritage Foundation\u2019s\u00a0\u201cProject Esther\u201d explicitly calls for deporting leaders of the Palestine solidarity organizations who aren\u2019t U.S. citizens<\/a>. It also demonizes critics of Israel as part of a \u201cglobal Hamas Support Network\u201d and ludicrously labels advocates for Palestinian freedom as \u201cdestroying capitalism and democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n