Trumps judge sister struck down law being used to deport Mahmoud Khalil over Columbia protests
Its not just radical left lunatic judges who have ruled against federal deportation actions – President Trumps own sister has gotten in on the act.
Its not just radical left lunatic judges who have ruled against federal deportation actions – President Trumps own sister has gotten in on the act.
Trumps older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, issued a ruling trashing the use of a 1952 law to grant the executive sweeping authority to toss someone out of the country. The Trump administration is using the same law to remove green card holder Mahmoud Khalil from the country after his arrest by ICE agents by saying his presence violates U.S. policy interests.
In her ruling, she blasted the governments use of the singular authority in a case she called truly Kafkaesque.
Make no mistake about it. This case is about the Constitution of the United States and the panoply of protections that document provides to the citizens of this country and those non-citizens who are here legally and, thus, here as our guests, Trumps sister wrote in her 1996 ruling on the case.
The law confers upon a single individual, the secretary of state, the unfettered and unreviewable discretion to deport any alien lawfully within the United States if that persons mere presence here would impact in some unexplained way on the foreign policy interests of the United States, Judge Barry, a Ronald Reagan appointee, ruled.
That case related to a prominent Mexican national who the government tried to report on a directive by then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Her decision was later overturned by an Appeals court, but not on the substantive basis of her ruling.
It is nearly identical language to that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is using as the basis of to deport green card holder Mahmoud Khalil, who has not been charged with a crime but has been found to conflict with U.S. policy.
That deportation case has drawn Trumps ire as the government seeks to expel from the country Khalil, who led Columbia University protests against Israel.
The late Judge Maryanne Trump Barry called the case of a Mexican national being removed from the country truly Kafkaesque. She ruled against a 1952 law that was being used as the basis for removal. The Trump administration is using the same law to try to remove pro-Palestinian protester and Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil
Maryanne Trump Barry died in 2023 at the age of 86, after a career on the federal bench in New Jersey.
Trump praised her wits and character, although Trump Barry was caught on tape eviscerating her younger brother in tapes secretary recorded by her niece, Mary Trump.
His goddamned tweet and the lying — oh, my God, she could be heard saying. Im talking too freely, but, you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying.
All he wants to do is appeal to his base. He has no principles. None. She added: Its the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel. You cant trust him, she added. At one point she surmised her brother hasnt read my immigration opinions., in comments reported by the Washington Post.
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials dramatically arrested and detained Khalil this month.
Khalil was arrested in New Jersey and has been removed to a Louisiana courthouse
The administration accuses him of being pro-Hamas for his participation in Columbia University protests last year
The administration accuses him of supporting Hamas. He was quickly moved to a Louisiana prison as the administration seeks to deport him. His wife, who is eight months pregnant and a U.S. citizen, is fighting for his release.
His lawyers cite the First Amendment as they fight his deportation.
The government has updated charges against him, accusing him of failing to disclose his membership in a UN organization or work he did for the British government at its embassy in Syria when he applied to become a U.S. permanent resident. That appeared to be a new basis to send him out of the country.
Khalil was born in Syria to parents of Palestinian descent.
Rubio told CBS Face the Nation last weekend: And if you tell us, when you apply for a visa, "Im coming to the U.S. to participate in pro-Hamas events," that runs counter to the foreign policy interest of the United States of America. If you had told us that you were going to do that, we never would have given you the visa.
Trump posted on Khalils case after his arrest, and used it to issue a stark warning.
We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again, Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here. We expect every one of Americas Colleges and Universities to comply. He called it the first arrest of many.
Rubio justified Khalils arrest under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
It states that any 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.
In her own ruling decades ago, Trump Barry wrote that the decision to deport cannot be left to an agencys unfettered and unreviewable discretion exercisable pursuant to a standardless law embodying only precatory congressional policies.