White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered the first allegation of evidence on Tuesday for why the administration believes pro-Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil should have been arrested and put on the path to deportation.
Podcaster Saagar Enjeti asked Leavitt, “Here on Mahmoud Khalil. Does the administration believe that it needs to charge a green card holder with the crime to be eligible for deportation?”
“Well, in fact, Secretary Marco Rubio reserves the right to revoke the visa of Mahmoud Khalil. And I’m glad you brought this up. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Secretary of State has the right to revoke a green card or a visa for individuals who serve or are adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States of America,” Leavitt replied, adding:
And Mahmoud Khalil was an individual who was given the privilege of coming to this country to study at one of our nation’s finest universities and colleges. And he took advantage of that opportunity of that privilege by siding with terrorists, Hamas terrorists who have killed innocent men, women, and children.
This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda fliers with the logo of Hamas. That is what the behavior and activity that this individual engaged in. And I have those fliers on my desk, they were provided to me by the Department of Homeland Security.
I thought about bringing them into this briefing room to share with all of you, but I didn’t think it was worth the dignity of this room to bring that pro-Hamas propaganda. But that’s what this individual distributed on the campus of Columbia University. And this administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro terrorist organizations that have killed Americans. We have a zero tolerance policy for siding with terrorists. Period.
CNN White House correspondent Priscilla Alvarez explained earlier in the day that the legal provision Rubio used to arrest Khalil is one that is rarely cited and called the move as “extraordinary escalation of the immigration crackdown by this administration.” Priscilla noted that the administration had yet to present any evidence, as Leavitt had, about Khalil’s associations to Hamas.
“And that’s exactly what we anticipate hearing more about tomorrow during the hearing. So far, they have not provided what evidence that they are using to hold him. Those are the questions we expect a judge will have. We’re also keeping a close eye on the docket for any filings from the government that would include those exhibits, for example, to say these are the reasons we think he’s a threat to U.S. foreign policy,” reported Alvarez.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
