Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Government Corruption

Federal judge slaps hold on new Oklahoma immigration law

2025-05-21

Of course he did. Note should be taken of those judges blocking MAGA initiatives at all levels, with a view to replacing them or something.

[FoxNews] The law was passed over a year ago but was delayed due to a legal challenge by the Biden Justice Department

A federal judge in Oklahoma has put a two-week hold on a 2024 state law coming into force that criminalizes illegal immigrants living in the state, a decision that was welcomed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) but drew a strong rebuke from the state’s attorney general, who blasted the decision as "outrageous."

Federal District Judge Bernard Jones on Tuesday ruled that House Bill 4156 may not be enforced for at least 14 days while a court challenge proceeds.

The law creates the crime of "impermissible occupation" and empowers state and local law enforcement officers to arrest immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

A first offense under the law is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of $500, and a second offense is a felony that could result in up to two years in prison. The law also requires a person to leave the state within 72 hours of conviction or release from custody.

The bill was signed into law in April 2024 but was held up from taking force due to a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration challenging its constitutionality in that it violates the federal government’s immigration authority, which led to a pause in enforcement.

However, the new Trump Justice Department decided to drop the federal government’s case in March.

That led to two unnamed undocumented immigrants and the ACLU representing a local advocacy group filing a new lawsuit, which prompted Jones to issue another temporary injunction on Tuesday.

Jones said that their case is likely to succeed in court, adding that he will consider a longer-term injunction of the law after a court hearing in early June.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond blasted the delayed enforcement, writing on X that "it is outrageous that Oklahoma is once again prohibited from enforcement of HB 4156."

He said it was critical to the state’s efforts to shut down illegal marijuana grows, fentanyl distribution and other illegal activities.

Drummond also blasted the judge for allowing the case to proceed despite two of the plaintiffs being anonymous because to reveal their identities would "expos(e) them to federal authorities" for federal lawbreaking, he said, quoting the judge.

"In the name of federal law, the court is protecting admitted lawbreakers from federal and state consequences," Drummond said in a statement. "This is perverse, contrary to the rule of law and we will be evaluating all options for challenging the ruling."

Tamya Cox-Touré, the executive director for the ACLU of Oklahoma, said the decision was a victory for immigrants' rights.

"But the damage of HB 4156 and the national rhetoric repeated by local politicians has already created an environment of fear in our state," Cox-Touré said. No matter what someone looks like, sounds like, or what their immigration status may be, they should feel safe in their own communities. We will continue to fight for the rights and dignity of immigrants and their families."

Link

Fifth Column

Georgetown University student, whose father-in-law worked with Hamas authorities in Gaza, released from US immigration detention

2025-05-16

[IsraelTimes] A Georgetown University scholar from India who was arrested in the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign college students is released from immigration detention after a federal judge’s ruling.

Badar Khan Suri will go home to his family in Virginia while he awaits the outcome of his petition against the Trump administration for wrongful arrest and detention in violation of the First Amendment and other constitutional rights. He is also facing deportation proceedings in an immigration court in Texas.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Khan Suri tells reporters after his release from a detention facility in Alvarado, near Dallas. “It took two months, but I’m extremely thankful that finally I’m free.”

Khan Suri was arrested by masked, plain-clothed officers on the evening of March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia. He was then put on a plane to Louisiana and later to a detention center in Texas.

Khan Suri’s attorneys say he and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, have been targeted because Saleh’s father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government for more than a decade, but before terror group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Trump administration has said that it revoked Khan Suri’s visa because of his social media posts and his wife’s connection to Gaza as a Palestinian American. They accused him of supporting Hamas, which the US has designated as a terrorist organization.

According to the US government, Khan Suri has undisputed family ties to the terrorist organization, which he “euphemistically refers to as ‘the government of Gaza.’” But the American Civil Liberties Union has said that Khan Suri hardly knew the father, Ahmed Yousef.

Is that the Ahmed Yousef described in the Rantburg archives in 2009 as Hamas's chief political adviser, and spelt Ahmed Yusef in 2011 described as Hamas’s deputy foreign minister? With that kind of a connection, it doesn’t matter that they’re not BFFs.

Link

Home Front: Politix

New York passes law backed by Jewish groups to crack down on masked crime

2025-05-10

How soon before both perpetrators and victims file lawsuits over this, dear Reader?

[IsraelTimes] Legislation establishes offense of ‘evading arrest by concealment of identity,’ a watered-down version of proposals aimed at combating upsurge in antisemitism

The New York State government on Thursday passed a law to combat masked crime, ending a legislative effort meant to combat antisemitism in the wake of the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel by the Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
terrorist group.

The push for an anti-masking law had spurred backlash from progressives, and the new rule is a watered-down version of the legislation initially sought by politicians in favor of the measure.

The legislation establishes the crime of "evading arrest by concealment of identity" and was signed into law by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday with the state budget.

Hochul had attached the law to the state budget as one of her legislative priorities. The $254 billion budget passed more than a month after its April 1 deadline, following weeks of negotiations, including over the masking legislation.

The law applies when a person carrying out a crime, or fleeing from the scene of a crime, wears a mask or covers their face "for no legitimate purpose" to prevent their identification or arrest. The law, a class B misdemeanor, will take effect in 30 days.

The charge will be added to the initial offense and could lead to harsher sentencing. Class B misdemeanors carry a maximum punishment of three months in jail.

Jeffrey Dinowitz, a Jewish state assemblyman from the Bronx who pushed for anti-masking legislation, applauded the new law in a Thursday statement, tying the rule to a disruptive protest by masked demonstrators at Columbia University on Wednesday.

"Time and again we see that when protestors conceal their identity, they can create environments of fear and distress, especially when targeting specific communities," Dinowitz said. "Yesterday’s incident of masked individuals vandalizing and terrorizing students and staff at Columbia University’s Butler Library highlights the necessity of this legislation to hold people responsible for their actions."

Other politicians criticized the legislation as too weak and difficult to enforce.

"This is a nothing burger. Unfortunately, this is nothing," Anthony Palumbo, a Republican state senator from Long Island, said during budget negotiations.

"This was well-intended, I’m sure, but it doesn’t get us to where we needed to go," Palumbo said.

A coalition of Jewish and Black groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP, launched a push to crack down on masking last year. The effort, called UnMaskHateNY, connected antisemitism by masked attackers to persecution of Black Americans by hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan.

The version of the bill put forward at the time was more expansive than the measure passed on Thursday. The earlier bill sought to outlaw masking at public assemblies such as protests, with carve-outs for facial coverings related to health and religion.

Hochul had previously pushed for a ban on "masked harassment," but retreated from the more strict proposal during the drawn-out budget negotiations.

UnMaskHateNY still celebrated the new measure shortly before the governor signed it into law.

"This law couldn’t have come a day sooner. With this new language on the books, we look forward to long-awaited oversight and accountability for any and all individuals who would hide their faces to commit crimes," a spokesperson for the group said.

The push to crack down on masked crime gained traction during an upsurge in antisemitism in New York City, particularly following an incident when masked protesters targeted "Zionists" on a subway car in May 2024.

Law enforcement said at the time that masking had impeded some investigations into criminal conduct by anti-Israel protesters, including at Columbia University.

Pro-Paleostinian and leftist organizations, including a group called Jews for Mask Rights, opposed the legislative effort, calling it an infringement on the right to free assembly and a risk to the immunocompromised.

Groups, including the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, called on the governor and state politicians to reject the law, characterizing the measure as a "mask ban," despite its limited scope.

"Despite lies to the contrary, this is not a mask ban. It is common-sense legislation that is in the interest of public safety and would not apply to lawful assemblies or protests," Dinowitz said on Thursday.

New York State had an anti-masking law dating back to the 1800s, but scrapped the rule in 2020 due to widespread masking during the COVID pandemic.

Nassau County, on Long Island, passed a law to ban masking at protests last year. That effort was led by Mazi Pilip, an Israeli-American Republican in the Nassau County legislature, who said she was motivated by antisemitism and protests at universities.

Link

Government Corruption

Trump's executive order on voting blocked by federal judge amid flurry of legal setbacks

2025-04-25

[FoxNews] Judge blocks 2 provisions from Trump's March executive order on election integrity.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday blocked a portion of President Donald Trump's executive order on election integrity, specifically provisions related to providing documentary proof of citizenship before being allowed to register to vote.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia handed down the order in response to lawsuits filed by three separate groups of plaintiffs over five different provisions in a March 25 Trump executive order relating to election integrity. While Kollar-Kotelly dismissed requests to block three of the provisions, requests to block two other provisions pertaining to a proof of citizenship requirement for voters were granted.

The first blocked provision sought to compel the Election Assistance Commission to amend standardized national voter registration forms to require documentary proof of citizenship. The second sought to require federal agencies offering voter registration to people on public assistance to "assess" the individual's citizenship status before doing so.

"Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections. Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would effect many of the changes the President purports to order," Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton-appointee, wrote in her order. "No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order."

Kollar-Kotelly said she would not block the other provisions that the groups sought to challenge, which cover mail-in ballots and data collection on citizenship status, calling the challenges "premature" and indicating they would be best challenged at the state level.

Earlier this month, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a bill requiring proof-of-citizenship to vote in federal elections. The measure still must pass the Senate, however, before the president can sign it into law.

Meanwhile, 25 states are considering some form of proof-of-citizenship legislation, according to the Voting Rights Lab, which is tracking such legislation. In total, 15 state constitutions have explicit prohibitions against non-citizen voting.

In addition to Trump's proof-of-citizenship orders getting shot down, two other federal judges from Maryland and New Hampshire also shot down additional orders from the president related to ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in K-12 public schools on Thursday.

The rulings followed lawsuits filed by the National Education Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. The groups argued that making federal funding contingent on whether educators squash their DEI programs violates First Amendment rights granted by the Constitution.

Link

-Land of the Free

Declassified: Biden Regime ‘Countering Domestic Terrorism' Playbook

2025-04-22

[ZeroHedge] With the “worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor,” January 6th, as the pretext, the Biden regime in 2021 devised its Orwellian “Strategic Implementation Plan For Countering Domestic Terrorism,” recently declassified by DNI chief Tulsi Gabbard.

Via The Washington Examiner (emphasis added):

“Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified a Biden administration plan to counter domestic terrorism established in the months following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

Gabbard declassified former President Joe Biden’s Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism at the prompting of conservative groups, including America First Legal…

Biden’s summer 2021 outline even garnered the criticism of the American Civil Liberties Union*, which called it a reflection of the “ever-expanding authority to surveil and monitor American communities.””

The Strategic Implementation Plan For Countering Domestic Terrorism four “pillars”:

· Pillar One: Understand and Share Domestic Terrorism-Related Information

· Pillar Two: Prevent Domestic Terrorism Recruitment and Mobilization to Violence

· Pillar Three: Disrupt and Deter Domestic Terrorism Activity

· Pillar Four: Confront Long-Term Contributors to Domestic Terrorism

Whereas “terrorist” once meant something specific — the use of literal violence for political ends — by “domestic terrorism,” the Biden regime meant “parents who don’t want the state to turn their kids into trannies without their consent” and people who say true things about Anthony Fauci on the internet.”

Via Pillar Four:

“Implement the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act to address hate crime reporting barriers faced by disadvantaged communities by promoting law enforcement training and resources to prevent and address bias-motivated crimes; improve federal hate crimes data and analysis to eliminate hate crimes underreporting; mitigate xenophobia and bias, including by advancing inclusion in the nation's COVID-19 response.”

Via the 2024 Supreme Court of the United States petition (emphasis added):

“The Attorney General of the United States has weaponized the vast law enforcement resources of the federal government to target parents, including Petitioners, who publicly and vehemently object to certain policies being forced upon their children in various school districts across the country, specifically including school districts located in Loudoun County, Virginia, and Saline, Michigan. The Attorney General has pejoratively designated these parents as “threats” and “domestic terrorists,” deeming them worthy of investigation and surveillance by the federal government.”

Via the 2024 Supreme Court of the United States petition (emphasis added):

“The Attorney General of the United States has weaponized the vast law enforcement resources of the federal government to target parents, including Petitioners, who publicly and vehemently object to certain policies being forced upon their children in various school districts across the country, specifically including school districts located in Loudoun County, Virginia, and Saline, Michigan. The Attorney General has pejoratively designated these parents as “threats” and “domestic terrorists,” deeming them worthy of investigation and surveillance by the federal government.”

This perfect illustration of mission creep is why we should not be cavalier about allowing — or even celebrating — the current administration designating criminal gangs like MS-13 as “terrorist” groups.

While I understand that doing so endows the Trump administration with greater authorities to purge the illegal aliens who comprise these groups from American soil, it is also laying the groundwork for future abuses when the Democrats, at some point in the future, take the reins of power.

Yet here we sit in 2025, allowing the ranks of who can be swept up in the national security state’s “terrorism” dragnet to swell once more, to deafening partisan cheers.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Top justice turns against SCOTUS move to halt Trump's deportations

2025-04-21

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Illegal migrant buses heading to airport is forced to turn around after bombshell SCOTUS ruling.

Extraordinary footage has emerged showing busloads of aVenezuelan detainees in the process of being deported before a stunning Supreme Court intervention.

The buses, loaded with at least 28 migrants, were heading from ICE's Bluebonnet Detention Center to Abilene Airport on Friday, according to NBC.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses were closely followed by a motorcade of 18 squad cars from varying law enforcement agencies.

The detainees - primarily Venezuelan - were driven back to the detention center after a bombshell Supreme Court ruling.

Justice Samuel Alito, one of the nation's top ranking legal authorities, has since issued a fiery dissent to the decision - which forced the Trump administration to temporarily halt the deportation of any Venezuelans held in a northern Texas detention facility under an 18th-century wartime law.

In his written ruling, Alito cited a government lawyer who insisted the administration had no intention of deporting anyone on Good Friday or Easter Saturday.

Judy Maldonado Rall, whose husband was reportedly on the bus at the time, said her husband was told by a guard he was headed toward the hellhole El Salvadorian prison where Trump has previously sent more than 200 suspected gang members.

She said after the buses were turned around, a guard told her husband: 'Well, you were lucky you were sent back because you were going to El Salvador, not Venezuela.'

That evening, the Supreme Court was weighing an urgent request to block the administration from conducting any deportations.

Simultaneously, Trump's nemesis Judge James Boasberg was hearing a case on the same matter. Lee Gelernt, a lawyer representing the American Civil Liberties Union, told the court: 'We hear they are on buses on the way to the airport.'

That sprung Boasberg into action, and he asked Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign to ensure no Bluebonnet detainees were being deported under the Alien Enemies Act on Friday night.

Boasberg was burned by the administration before, after his ruling to turn planes carrying deportees around to ensure due process went ignored.

By early Saturday morning, a 7-2 Supreme Court majority ruled Trump must not deport any Venezuelans held in the northern Texas detention facility.

His administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify sending hundreds of suspected gang members and illegal migrants to a hellish El Salvadorian prison last month.

Alito's sharp dissent argued the court acted 'literally in the middle of the night' and with 'dubious factual support' to take the extraordinary measure of blocking the government.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Sanctuary Supreme Court Halts Trump Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act

2025-04-19

[Tampa Free Press] In a late-night decision, the U.S. Supreme Court intervened to temporarily halt the Trump administration's planned deportation of Venezuelan men held in immigration custody. The justices issued an order early Saturday morning, preventing the government from removing any members of the affected group until further notice.

The brief, unsigned decision, released around 12:55 a.m., came after lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed urgent requests in multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, citing imminent deportations.

The ACLU alleged that some detainees had already been placed on buses and informed of their impending removal.

"The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court," the Supreme Court's order stated.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito publicly dissented from the decision.

The ACLU's emergency appeals stemmed from concerns that the administration was preparing to deport the men under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, a law historically reserved for wartime, without affording them the judicial review previously mandated by the Supreme Court. The organization argued that the rapid developments effectively denied the detainees a fair opportunity to contest their removal.

Link

Government Corruption

Gabbard Declassifies the Details of Team Biden's 'Roadmap for Left-Wing Ideological Warfare'

2025-04-19

[RedState] Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard has now released the declassified part of the Biden administration's game plan that sought to censor about half of the American people over the past four years and ahead of the November 2024 election.

The strategy was known as the Strategic Implementation Plan for countering Domestic Terrorism.

She writes: "As promised, I have declassified the Biden Administration’s Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism."

Former Missouri state Attorney General and now-Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) has shared a helpful breakdown of the scheme on his X account. He begins by describing it as "a roadmap for left-wing ideological warfare."

"This was written in the early months of the Biden presidency," he writes. "But it lays out, in detail, exactly what they would go on to do—and how they justified it."

Sen. Schmitt continues: "By adopting the framework of 'domestic terrorism' (DT), they could effectively treat their critics as enemies of the state."

It was so troubling that even the liberals at American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called it out:

But it was even worse than anyone imagined, as the now-declassified parts of it reveal:

The plan lays out a four-pillar strategy:

1) Understand and Share DT-Related Information

2) Prevent DT Recruitment and Mobilization to Violence

3) Disrupt and Deter DT Activity

4) Confront Long-Term Contributors to DT

Schmitt explains that the first pillar focused on "information-sharing," with "every arm of the government" acting like the tentacles of an octopus and reaching into every aspect of Americans' lives. We saw clear signs of this with the major pushback parents across the country got from the school boards of their children's schools.

Link

-Land of the Free

Visa revocations sow panic for foreign students in US, as hundreds fear deportation

2025-04-16

The times, they are a-changing. This is the fastest and most effective way to ensure people understand — both the universities and visa holders and those interested in getting visas for whatever reason.

[IsraelTimes] At least 790 students at over 120 schools have had visas canceled or legal status terminated in recent weeks, according to review; advocacy groups say hundreds more could be caught up

I saw a claim of over 1,000 yesterday, but there was no corroboration.

At first, the bar association for immigration attorneys began receiving inquiries from a couple students a day. These were foreigners studying in the US, and they’d discovered in early April their legal status had been terminated with little notice. To their knowledge, none of the students had committed a deportable offense.

In recent days, the calls have begun flooding in. Hundreds of students have been calling to say they have lost legal status, seeking advice on what to do next.

"We thought it was going to be something that was unusual," said Matthew Maiona, a Boston-based immigration attorney who is getting about six calls a day from panicked international students. "But it seems now like it’s coming pretty fast and furious."

The speed and scope of the federal government’s efforts to terminate the legal status of international students have stunned colleges across the country. Few corners of higher education have been untouched, as schools ranging from prestigious private universities, large public research institutions and tiny liberal arts colleges discover status terminations one after another among their students.

At least 790 students at more than 120 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated in recent weeks, according to an News Agency that Dare Not be Named review of university statements and correspondence with school officials. Advocacy groups collecting reports from colleges say hundreds more students could be caught up in the crackdown.

STUDENTS APPARENTLY TARGETED OVER MINOR INFRACTIONS
Around 1.1 million international students were in the United States last year — a source of essential revenue for tuition-driven colleges. International students are not eligible for federal financial aid, and their ability to pay tuition often factors into whether they will be admitted to American schools. Often, they pay full price.

Many of the students losing their legal status are from India and China, which together account for more than half the international students at American colleges. But the terminations have not been limited to those from any one part of the world, lawyers said.

Four students from two Michigan universities are suing Trump administration officials after their F-1 student status was terminated last week. Their attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, Ramis Wadood, said the students never received a clear reason why.

"We don’t know, and that’s the scary part," he said.

The students were informed of the status terminations by their universities via email, which came as a shock, Wadood said. The reason given was that there was a "criminal records check and/or that their visa was revoked," Wadood said, but none of them were charged or convicted of crimes. Some had either speeding or parking tickets, but one didn’t have any, he said. Only one of the students had known their entry visa was revoked, Wadood said.

Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio

...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
said the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who participated in anti-Israel protests and those who face criminal charges.

But many students say they don’t fall under those categories. Students have filed lawsuits in several states, arguing they were denied due process.

In New Hampshire, a federal judge last week granted a temporary restraining order to restore the status of a Ph.D. student at Dartmouth College, Xiaotian Liu. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Wisconsin issued a similar order, ruling the government could not take steps to detain or revoke the visa of a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student.

IN A BREAK FROM PAST, FEDS CANCEL STUDENTS’ STATUS DIRECTLY
At many colleges, officials learned the legal immigration status of some international students had been terminated when staff checked a database managed by the Department of Homeland Security. In the past, college officials say, legal statuses typically were updated after colleges told the government the students were no longer studying at the school.

The system to track enrollment and movements of international students came under the control of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after 9/11, said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, an association of international educators. She said recent developments have left students fearful of how quickly they can be on the wrong side of enforcement.

"You don’t need more than a small number to create fear," Aw said. "There’s no clarity of what are the reasons and how far the reach of this is."

Her group says as many as 1,300 students have lost visas or had their status terminated, based on reports from colleges.

The Department of Homeland Security and State Department did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Foreigners who are subject to removal proceedings are usually sent a notice to appear in immigration court on a certain date, but lawyers say affected students have not received any notices, leaving them unsure of next steps to take.

Some schools have told students to leave the country to avoid the risk of being detained or deported. But some students have appealed the terminations and stayed in the United States while those are processed.

Still others caught in legal limbo aren’t students at all. They had remained in the US post-graduation on "optional practical training," a one-year period — or up to three for science and technology graduates — that allows employment in the US after completing an academic degree. During that time, a graduate works in their field and waits to receive their H-1B or other employment visas if they wish to keep working in the US.

Around 242,000 foreigners in the US are employed through this "optional practical training." About 500,000 are pursuing graduate degrees, and another 342,000 are undergraduate students.

Among the students who have filed lawsuits is a Georgia Tech Ph.D. student who is supposed to graduate on May 5, with a job offer to join the faculty. His attorney Charles Kuck said the student was likely targeted for termination because of an unpaid traffic fine from when the student lent his car to a friend. Ultimately, the violation was dismissed.

"We have case after case after case exactly like that, where there is no underlying crime," said Kuck, who is representing 17 students in the federal lawsuit. He said his law firm has heard from hundreds of students.

"These are kids who now, under the Trump administration, realize their position is fragile," he said. "They’ve preyed on a very vulnerable population. These kids aren’t hiding. They’re in school."

Some international students have been adapting their daily routines.

A Ph.D. student from China at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said she has begun carrying around her passport and immigration paperwork at the advice of the university’s international student office. The student, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by authorities, said she has been distressed to see the terminations even for students like her without criminal records.

"That is the most scary part because you don’t know whether you’re going to be the next person," she said.

Link

Home Front: WoT

CAIR denounces ruling to deport Mahmoud Khalil

2025-04-12

[GEO.TV] The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced the ruling by an immigration judge to deport the permanent resident for his ''peaceful political activities'' calling it a ''dangerous, unconstitutional'' decision, Al Jazeera reported, citing a statement.

“Although today’s ruling is just the first step in a long legal process, it should be alarming to all Americans who cherish the Bill of Rights and basic freedoms like free speech,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, in a statement.

“We are confident that federal courts will see through the Trump administration’s lawless attack on free speech and that the movement against the Israeli government’s genocide will continue to grow in our nation, despite these Orwellian attempts to suppress free speech.”

Court allows US admin to deport pro-Palestine Mahmoud Khalil

[GEO.TV] An immigration judge ruled Friday that a pro-Paleostinian student protester, a US permanent resident detained by the Trump administration, can be deported, US media and a legal rights group said.

Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said the government had met its burden to prove it had grounds to deport him, Fox News reported.

"An immigration judge ruled immediately after a hearing today that Mahmoud Khalil is removable under US immigration law," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.

Comans had ordered the government to spell out its case against Khalil, who the government is seeking to deport on the grounds that his protest activities are a threat to national security.

In a letter to the court, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
insisted that Khalil's activism could hurt Washington's foreign policy.

The Times of Israel adds:

Lawyers for Khalil are expected to appeal. And a federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily barred Khalil’s removal from the country.

Khalil’s lawyers, including representation from the American Civil Liberties Union, have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to crack down on free speech protected by the US Constitution.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, has cited the Immigration and Nationality Act, passed in 1952, which gave the executive branch power to deport any noncitizen who poses “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

The law also specifically allows for the deportation of a non-citizen who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.”

On Friday, Justice Department attorneys said in papers filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, that Comans would not have the authority to immediately free Khalil.

They said an immigration judge could determine if Khalil is subject to deportation and then conduct a bail hearing afterward if it is found that he is not.

Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The government, however, has said that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and pro-Hamas.

Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student coalition that spearheaded anti-Israel protests at the school.

CUAD has praised “violent resistance” by Palestinians, including, explicitly, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. The group also hosted a number of pro-Hamas figures to campus, including Khaled Barakat, who was later listed by the Biden administration as a specially designated foreign terrorist.

In addition, Khalil served as a negotiator and spokesperson for the anti-Israel encampment at Columbia last year, and for students who broke into and occupied a university building, unfurling a banner calling for “intifada.” He is not personally accused of participating in the building occupation, however, and wasn’t among the people arrested in connection with the demonstrations.

Link

Government Corruption

Coalition of Leftist Groups Urges Election Agency to Defy Trump

2025-04-02

[DAILYSIGNAL] A coalition of left-leaning organizations is urging the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to defy President Donald Trump's executive order on election integrity.

Trump on Tuesday issued the order that, among other things, requires federal voter registration forms require proof of citizenship and would cut federal funding to states that count mail-in ballots arriving after Election Day.

The Election Assistance Commission—an executive branch agency created under the 2002 Help America Vote Act—manages federal voter registration forms and federal election grants to states and localities.

The seven-page letter to the commission was led by the liberal Brennan Center for Justice, a think tank aligned with New York University that has consistently opposed voter ID, voter list maintenance, and other election security measures.

Joining the Brennan Center were the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters, the Legal Defense Fund, and the NAACP.

''The order itself is unlawful as it relates to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (the 'Commission'), and it would, in any event, also be unlawful for the commission to take several of the actions directed by the order,'' the letter says.

My book, ''The Myth of Voter Suppression,'' describes these organizations and their funders as comparable to political machines of the past that resisted what were considered election integrity reforms at the time, such as adopting a secret ballot. Similarly, those organizations have consistently opposed election reform proposals, such as the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

The letter adds: ''Congress created the commission with the express intent that it be an 'independent' agency, not subject to the president's direction.''

Link

Fifth Column

Tracing the links: Columbia students’ lawyers, street protest groups part of linked anti-Israel network

2025-03-30

[IsraelTimes] Legal representatives for allegedly pro-Hamas students threatened with deportation have advised and mentored activists leading disruptive rallies around New York and on campuses

Earlier this month, after US federal authorities detained a Columbia University protest leader, student activists walked off campus to rally outside the university’s gates.

They joined demonstrators from Within Our Lifetime, a hardline anti-Israel protest group, to chant for the release of the Columbia organizer, Mahmoud Khalil.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pond, the enormous newt was trying to decide if Gloria was edible...
Khalil’s lawyers battled for his release in court, filing legal summonses to US President Donald Trump
...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...
and Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
The activists and lawyers were not disparate players animated by shared outrage over Khalil’s detention, but are connected — part of an overlapping network that has developed over the years around anti-Israel activism on the streets, in the courts and on campuses.

Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer who has represented Khalil, is an example of the intersecting spheres: Kassem is an alum of Columbia who wrote anti-Israel articles for the campus newspaper while a student in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He is now a professor at the public City University of New York (CUNY) law school, a hotbed of anti-Israel activism.

Kassem also heads Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR), a resident nonprofit and legal clinic at the CUNY Law School. Lawyers from the group represent Khalil and other student activists and advise protest groups.

CLEAR aims to represent and advise clients against "government policies and practices deployed under the guise of ’national security’ and ’counterterrorism,’" its website says.

Two of the CLEAR’s recent alumni are CUNY Law graduates Nerdeen Kiswani and Fatima Mohammed, who each gave inflammatory anti-Israel graduation speeches at CUNY Law graduation ceremonies in 2022 and 2023. Mohammed’s 2023 speech set off a national uproar and prompted the law school to remove student speakers from graduation events.

Kiswani and Mohammed are two leaders of Within Our Lifetime, the most prominent anti-Israel activist group on New York City streets. Within Our Lifetime often collaborates with the Columbia activists, including at the protest outside the university this month. Kiswani joined the protest encampment at Columbia last year and co-hosted an off-campus student talk that brought in speakers from the activist group Samidoun, who praised Hamas
Hamas

..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
during the event. Samidoun was designated as a terrorist entity by the US and Canada after the event.

Closing out the circle, CLEAR advises and supports Within Our Lifetime and the Columbia student activists. The day of the protest this month, the Columbia protest group posted an explainer from CLEAR that warned against cooperating with law enforcement. Within Our Lifetime and the Columbia protest coalition instruct followers to contact CLEAR if they run into trouble.

CLEAR is part of the nonprofit City University of New York School of Law Foundation. The group had revenue of $3.8 million between July 2022 and June 2023, the most recent period for which tax filings are available.

WORKSHOPS COACH HOW TO SKIRT THE LAW
In one of CLEAR’s workshops for student protesters last year, lawyers from the group advised activists against non-citizens advocating for terrorism, soliciting funds for terror groups, and membership in terrorist organizations. The lawyers warned that non-citizens were subject to deportation, and students to expulsion, for terror support.

"There are certain kinds of things that we want to make sure that you know will create risks for you if you’re not a citizen, so that’s inciting, advocating, or declaring public approval or support for terrorist activity," one of the lawyers said, according to video of the workshop shared by journalist Stu Smith.

Twitter thread:

Dallal and Naz Ahmad coached the students on how to avoid Customs and Border Protection making a copy of your phone data. Much stress was placed on how deleted group chats and photos could still be seen by these officers. pic.twitter.com/aB9QqzmMlH
— Stu (@thestustustudio) January 10, 2024

Khalil, a green card holder, was detained days after protesters at an event he attended distributed Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
propaganda. Since Khalil’s arrest, the legal team has argued that he is being persecuted for free speech.

During the workshop, the lawyers also coached the protesters on how to respond to questions about Hamas, what to do when re-entering the US from international travel, and how to avoid scrutiny of "sensitive materials" on digital devices when entering the US.

TIGHT ‘PROGRESSIVE’ NETWORK
The activist network has ties to the broader progressive movement. In 2022, Kassem was appointed as a senior policy adviser for immigration by the Biden administration. Recent donors to the CUNY Law foundation include MacKenzie Scott and the Foundation to Promote Open Society.

Other legal groups also collaborate with the protesters. Within Our Lifetime urges followers to contact the National Lawyers Guild if they are arrested, and the two groups have collaborated on campaigns. Kiswani was a member of the guild while a student at CUNY Law, and the guild backed Mohammed after her 2023 commencement speech.

The guild’s New York City chapter dispatches "observers" to anti-Israel street protests, many of whom wear keffiyehs and anti-Israel apparel. The guild backed the October 7 attack on Israel the day after the onslaught.

In addition to CLEAR, lawyers representing Khalil have come from progressive legal groups that have engaged in anti-Israel activism, such as the Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union, whose New York branch has filed lawsuits against Columbia and CUNY Law on behalf of anti-Israel activists.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech group that has both condoned and condemned Columbia protests, has also defended Khalil, saying his detention threatens free speech protections.

FIRE needs to figure out the difference between speech rights and violence wrongs… This is much more important than preening themselves on their open-mindedness for defending someone who would love to see them dead.

Lawyers from CLEAR are also representing another Columbia anti-Israel student activist, Yunseo Chung, who sued the Trump administration this week against her deportation.

PRO-ISRAEL MOVEMENT MORE FRACTURED THAN PRO-PALESTINIANS
The anti-Israel protest movement in New York is ideologically cohesive in its commitment to Israel’s destruction. There aren’t any non-Jewish pro-Palestinian protest groups in New York calling for peace and two states, and none condemn Hamas or October 7. Palestinian advocates who don’t toe the line are shouted down. Kiswani has openly endorsed Hamas and the Columbia protesters have said, “Violence is the only path.” The protests have disrupted life in the city, targeting cancer patients, museums, memorials, libraries, transportation hubs and holiday events. Outright support for US-designated terrorist groups is common.

The counterweight to the movement is the network of Zionist Jewish organizations, including legal groups such as the Brandeis Center, the Lawfare Project, and the National Jewish Advocacy Center.

The pro-Israel movement is well-funded and longstanding, but more fractured in its politics, approach and outlook, ranging from leftists sympathetic to the Palestinians to the more combative right-wing. The movement has also been eclipsed in some areas. Community leaders acknowledged that the movement had “lost the streets” even before October 7, despite events like New York’s massive, annual Celebrate Israel parade.

In the legal realm, Jewish groups are seeking to regain ground under the pressure of war and surging antisemitism. Pro-Israel legal groups only recently began coordinating lawsuits filed around the US, for example. The pro-Israel legal offensive is gaining steam and evolving, though, with lawsuits filed against universities, activists and nonprofits making their way through courts around the country. Some of the lawsuits are making novel use of civil rights protections, opening new fronts in the lawfare battle. A New York nonprofit that has handled funding for an array of activist groups, including Within Our Lifetime and Students for Justice in Palestine, is facing a potential collapse due to lawsuits. Universities like Columbia are being battered from both sides.

In the latest legal salvo, this week, pro-Israel lawyers filed a lawsuit against street protesters and Columbia activists, alleging that the groups function as Hamas’s “propaganda arm” in New York and on campus. Kiswani and Khalil are among the defendants.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More