Mahmoud Khalil, further Trump regime undermining of the judiciary, and passing a personal test
Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and detention by the Trump DHS/ICE is in the news and the courts. Today, his lawyers have filed a motion to have ICE return him to New York, asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to protect Khalil from disruption of the underlying habeas corpus proceedings begun before ICE transferred him to Louisiana. This motion shows how Trump’s treatment of Khalil is also a challenge to judicial authority. It lays out the frighteningly Kafkaesque details of his original detention by ICE. Upon the arrival of DHS at his apartment building, Khalil did have a chance to contact his attorney, who quickly fired a habeas petition, challenging his detention, arrest, and confinement by ICE/DHS. This habeas petition was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, giving that court jurisdiction - authority - over Khalil’s situation. Yet, notwithstanding the filed habeas petition, ICE transferred Khalil from New York to Louisiana, without notifying his attorney or the court. ICE often transfers people it detains to facilities far from the original detention, claiming that there is no closeby facility available or to satisfy contracts with the private prison companies to whom the government outsources immigration detention facilities. This is highly objectionable in any situation, but totally unacceptable when subsequent to a habeas petition filed in the original jurisdiction. Relocation to Louisiana makes it hard for Khalil to confer with his attorneys, interfering with his right counsel. It also makes it harder for the Southern District of New York to compel Khalil’s release, should the Southern District Court rule in Khalil’s favor on the habeas petition. Moving Khalil from the New York metro area to Louisiana under these circumstances certainly appears to be a deliberate effort by the Trump DHS/ICE to impede pending judicial proceedings before the District Court for the Southern District of New York. On top of the disregard for Khalil’s Sixth Amendment rights, the government has once again deliberately interfered with the work of the judicial branch. The Trump regime is a lawless effort to achieve a federal executive dictatorship.
On a more personal note, today I learned something about myself. Before one is called to speak up for a person abused by the government, one can never be sure that distaste for many of the person’s views and much of his rhetoric will inhibit one. While I am wholly a critic of Benjamin Netanyahu and his treatment of Palestinians, I am also highly critical of many of Mahmoud Khalil’s positions and much of the rhetoric associated with them. As I read the news and then the court documents, I could not stay silent. I spoke up on social media earlier today, and now I’m writing this blog post. It is wholly reprehensible for the U.S. Government to seize a lawful permanent resident, deny him due process, and hide him away in detention. This is fascism. It must not stand.