As promised, here is the amended now public version — calling Tangerine 2.0 and Kristi Noem out — for demonizing, and then abducting (to rural Louisiana, from NYC!) a green card holder with whom they disagree — on his protected views — on Gaza and the Israelis. Those views — without a doubt — are core First Amendment matters — ones for which the government may not punish him, absent a showing that he took concrete, substantial steps to create imminent lawlessness, and violent bodily harm to the public at large. Thus far there has been no such evidence. None.
Let’s put this all on front street — and let the world see it. This Tangerine response is overwrought, Unconstitutional and… perhaps most of all… is a very UN-American response, to a disagreement about politics entirely on foreign soil (on the other side of the world, from Trump’s claim that he only cares about America). Here are the muscular 33 pages, as amended now with the aid of rudimentary discovery from Noem’s DHS — and ICE’s Joyce:
…This case concerns the government’s targeted, retaliatory detention and attempted removal of a student protester because of his constitutionally protected speech. Petitioner Mahmoud Khalil is Palestinian, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, and a recent graduate student at Columbia University. Over the last year and a half, Mr. Khalil has been a mediator, an active participant in, and at times the public face of, student protests on Columbia’s campus related to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The Trump administration has made no secret of its opposition to those protests and has repeatedly threatened to weaponize immigration law to punish noncitizens who have participated in them….
Neither Secretary Rubio nor any other government official has alleged that Mr. Khalil has committed any crime or, indeed, broken any law whatsoever…. After repeatedly transferring him across jurisdictions, the government ultimately detained Mr. Khalil in Louisiana, a thousand miles from his attorneys and his wife, who is a U.S. citizen and due to give birth next month….
[T]he government’s subsequent actions, including its ongoing detention of Mr. Khalil in rural Louisiana, isolating him from his wife, community, and legal team, are plainly intended as retaliation and punishment for Mr. Khalil’s protected speech and intended to silence, or at the very least restrict and chill, his speech now and in the future, all in violation of the First Amendment. Indeed, contemporaneous and subsequent statements by administration officials expressly characterize the invocation of this rarely used provision as punishment for Mr. Khalil’s lawful and protected speech. The Rubio Determination and Mr. Khalil’s unjustified detention also violate his due process rights….
[As they cuffed him, the agents were asked if they had a warrant, and they said] they had one on the phone and that they would show it to [the green card holder]. However, the agents never showed him any warrant [they also left no ID with his wife — and gave what turned out to be a false address for his detention]….
This is simply… Un-American. Deeply. And Truly. To give the readers a sense of how little the ICE and DHS agents left, by way of useful information as they abducted this man, compare what the first version of the complaint, and the present one look like — by specific marks redline. This is a very fine habeas petition now. Excellent — by the NY ACLU.
Trump needs to pay the price for it — as do Rubio and Noem. Out. We may be quiet now until Monday night, late. Until then… “watch the skies.”
नमस्ते
This all is — at base — simple federal contracting/contractual law. Trump and Musk as billionaires are used to stiffing people with relative impunity, as no one can afford to litigate contractual claims forever, against them.
Powerline Lies... 