This is terrifying:
The Trump administration invoked an obscure statute over the weekend in moving to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the United States who recently graduated from Columbia University, where he helped lead campus protests against high civilian casualties in Gaza during Israel’s campaign against Hamas.
Mr. Khalil was arrested by immigration officers on Saturday and then sent to a detention center in Louisiana. On Monday, a federal judge in New York, Jesse M. Furman, ordered the federal government not to deport Mr. Khalil while he reviewed a petition challenging the legality of the detention.
For several days, it was unknown where ICE was even holding the man. This administration is now giving the Navalny treatment to people they view as the enemy.
Eric
I’m glad this is getting a lot of attention because it is terrifying.
robtrim
He’s been disappeared…
Steve LaBonne
@Eric: It can get even worse if a court orders him released and they simply defy it.
Old Man Shadow
Yep. Kidnapped by armed people who reportedly showed no identification. Whisked away to an unknown location where neither his lawyer nor his family knew. It would not surprise me if he were already out of the country.
If he’s not, I’m sure that will be the lesson Trump takes from this. Get them out, so even if a judge says “Fuck you” it’s already accomplished.
And I’m sure they won’t be particularly picky about paperwork.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
It’s so exhausting. One thing after another. And that’s the whole point, to wear us down. I hope we’re up to doing what we have to do to fight this.
Soprano2
Does the press understand what’s happening here? I’m not sure they do, this is indeed a five alarm fire. Fascists start with unpopular groups, and if they’re successful they quickly spread these practices to anyone who disagrees. My one hope is that American are so used to being free and having freedom of speech that they won’t tolerate this. It’s a faint hope, but it’s a hope.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
I’m sorry this is OT, but I’ve just confirmed that the rotating tag line at the top of BJ appears briefly if I tap the Balloon Juice name, then disappears. I have an Android smart phone (Galaxy 25+ that I recently got). I miss the rotating tags! Anyone else gave this problem?
I just checked and it is also happening on my Dell desk computer. Sigh. Sorry, WG
ETA: Horrible news about Khalil
suzanne
It’s terrifying.
Less terrifying but incredibly disappointing are the Dems on X saying that we should not fight for this guy because they disagree with the content of his legally protected speech.
Betty Cracker
This is a quote via News Eye on Bluesky:
I think The Free Press is Bari Weiss’s outfit, and I wouldn’t believe them if they said rain was wet without checking first. But it fits with the reporting up top. Jesus.
mrmoshpotato
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Same issue on Android with the DuckDuckGo browser.
suzanne
@Soprano2:
Exactly. 100%.
mrmoshpotato
Fucking fascist chickenshits.
JPL
If trump decided to put the marines on the border of Canada, would republicans stand up to him?
haha I kid
cmorenc
Trump’s legal terror tactics now extend to revoking the security clearances of law firms representing people he considers his enemies, such as the firm representing Jack Smith, the longstanding prestigious DC firm Perkins, Coie.
An implication is that Trump may attempt to use threatening hard-ball intimidation tactics against any law firms defending deportation cases, such as retaliating against their client base that are completely aside from immigration cases.
Old Man Shadow
@suzanne: The ADL was cheering this on as if they had never cracked a history book.
sentient ai from the future
We are all Michael Reinoehl now
Betty Cracker
@Old Man Shadow: Yep. And they made excuses for Musk’s Nazi salute.
suzanne
@Old Man Shadow: There’s a disturbing amount of people who see politics as primarily about power and who has it, and not about principle and what should be done with it. The ADL falls into that first group.
schrodingers_cat
He should get his due process, a day in the court. Let the ACLU handle this.
Belafon
@schrodingers_cat: As long as they don’t throw him on a plane in the interim.
schrodingers_cat
@Belafon: A judge has stopped his deportation for now.
gene108
@Soprano2:
I think they do.
The issue for us is a whole bunch of them are paid to support these kind of actions by Trump, while most of the rest are constrained by their billionaire bosses from being openly critical of Trump.
John S.
@suzanne:
Jonathan Greenblatt is a clown, and an affront to all Jews with an ounce of moral fiber.
Eric
@Steve LaBonne: agreed. Really don’t feel good about any of this, as the bad things we thought might happen are occurring much faster than we probably all thought.
Deputinize America
At some future point in time, when every power in that region decides that they’ve had enough of Israel’s shit and choose to finish it en masse, if I’m still alive I’m going to struggle to care beyond the notion of support for providing a decent haven for the inevitable refugees.
They could have chosen to be a secular federated republic, but instead picked a model where the base standard was as an exclusionary theonomy.
suzanne
@John S.: I am heartened by how many people showed up to protest Khalil’s disappearance at the ICE office in NYC. One can disagree with the content of his speech and still believe his rights are being violated.
Too many liberals have turned away from the human rights violations of Palestinians in Gaza, and the US role in those, because Gaza protestors are annoying and some US Muslims didn’t vote the way we wanted them to. It’s cynical and gross, and incredibly revealing. If you have actual principles, you have them all the time.
cmorenc
@Steve LaBonne: The RW SCOTUS 6 who joined the Presidential immunity decision probably never thought through the implication that Trump would eventually use it to intimidate them against making any ruling he might choose to defy, because it did not occur to them he would go on such a power trip he would refuse to respect any guardrails of the law and not be within their ability to constrain. Like Dr Frankenstein, they can’t control the monster they created to enact the Federalist ideological agenda.
matt
Seems like this is going to be the first line of response to any kind of protests under the Trump regime.
Matt McIrvin
@cmorenc: I’m pretty sure that at least a few of them want an absolute dictator to rule over them. Alito definitely does–he thinks of power, at least when a Republican wields it, as coming from God and not to be questioned.
HopefullyNotcassandra
A couple of legal things and a fact to note. The first legal issue is surely reprehensible, but preceded his orange pathetic mess by decades. The second is all on the pathetic mess.
The reprehensible disappearing of INS detainees is not new.
https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/12/02/locked-far-away/transfer-immigrants-remote-detention-centers-united-states
Second, in this instance, the pathetic mess of a regime screwed even the above ugly pooch here. Mr. Khalil had an immigration lawyer and a good one too. His lawyer filed a habeas petition at 4:40 a.m. before Mr. Khalil was moved. That is both reprehensible and not o.k.
This pathetic mess of a regime also gets basic facts wrong about Mr. Khalil. He was not one of the protestors who took over a building at Columbia. He was protesting, but not part of that take over. He actually mediated between Columbia’s administration and the protestors who did take over the building to end the take over.
His American wife is pregnant. ICE officers threatened her with arrest and refused to identify themselves. ICE officers appeared clueless that Mr Khalil is a legal permanent resident with a green card. It is doubtful his green card was properly revoked. Congress must be notified by the Secretary of State prior to a green card revocation.
Legal permanent residents have due process rights.
IMHO human rights are universal or they are not rights at all. All immigrants must have due process rights and no-one should be disappeared from those who love them.
RaflW
I briefly saw a comment in an earlier thread that I believe wanted to engage on the issues of what Khalil said/did. I’m gonna outsource my sentiment because Ms. Branstetter said it so much more clearly:
RaflW
@Soprano2: “Does the press understand what’s happening here?”
I’d expect that if Will Bunch got dissapeared, the newly reichwing WaPo would run an oped saying he had it coming.
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin:
Alito is another Catholic integralist. Deneen, Dreher, Yarvin, Thiel….. they all want a Catholic dictator. They’re hoping it’s JD Vance.
TiredOfItAll
Hearing is scheduled for 11:30 AM tomorrow morning. There will be another rally at Foley Square (Federal Plaza).
Josie
@Deputinize America:
I couldn’t have said it better.
zhena gogolia
@matt: Putin playbook.
Gretchen
@TiredOfItAll: Are they bringing back from Louisiana for the hearing or having it without him?
Melancholy Jaques
@Soprano2:
The press understands that if they don’t kiss Trump’s ass they will get kicked out of the White House press room.
Baud
Not that I trust this to last, but good news if true.
John S.
@suzanne:
I find it particularly offensive behavior coming from minority communities who should know better — like Jews.
Stamping out antisemitism is a worthy cause, but the ends don’t justify the means. You can’t stop intolerance by embracing intolerance.
John S.
@Baud:
As if Ukraine is going to rely on intelligence coming from Tulsi Gabbard’s office. That shit might as well be printed on KGB stationary.
rikyrah
IF they are going to start stripping GREEN CARD HOLDERS
THERE IS A LEGAL PROCESS
Baud
@John S.:
Good point.
Citizen Alan
@John S.: There is a strain of anti-antisemitism that flirts with Jewish supremacy. I knew a Jewish guy in college who was became angry to the point of belligerence when the term Holocaust was used to describe the mass murder of any non-Jewish ethnic group, including Native Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries, African slaves in the American South, and even non-Jewish victims of the Nazi concentration camps. I was baffled by his views at the time and shudder to think what he’s likely become in the 20 years or so since I last saw him.
JaySinWA
@Baud:
@John S.:
Of course it remains to be seen if they can actually turn things back on that they have turned off. Their track record is not great in responding to orders to pay for contract work already completed. I don’t know that this will work any better.
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
I don’t think I’ve heard Holocaust used to describe other examples of genocide.
Professor Bigfoot
@suzanne: Who be they?
Any Dem who is willing to trade away anyone’s human rights can get fucked.
Even IF those someones annoying, bothersome shitheads that I believe are as wrong as two left shoes, they have that right.
If the Constitution still means a damn thing, that is.
Trollhattan
Does nobody recall plain vans rolling up and snatching protestors from the Portland streets? This is neither new nor surprising.
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892277592/federal-officers-use-unmarked-vehicles-to-grab-protesters-in-portland
suzanne
@Baud: With a lowercase “h”, I’ve heard it used to describe other mass killing/genocide events. Such as “nuclear holocaust”.
Trollhattan
@Baud:
‘Round these parts, we’re special that way.
BarcaChicago
@Deputinize America: If I understand correctly, your post states that you will have little to no sympathy if Israel is attacked and eradicated. For me, anyone who posts casually referring to the eradication of either Palestine or Israel and infers that they have little sympathy for either entity and its people is outrageous. Truly disgusting comment.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@RaflW: You are absolutely right imho
HopefullyNotcassandra
@suzanne: Are you certain Justice Alito is not something much more common? You know, simply a corrupt man? The evidence certainly suggests the later. He does certainly want us to think of him as our own Torquemada.
suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: Take a look around social media platforms, Reddit, etc. I understand that Khalil has beliefs that alienate others. He might even be sympathetic to terrorists. I’ll note that a lot of Americans are sympathetic to (white) terrorists and that’s legal.
BarcaChicago
@Professor Bigfoot: Agree 100%. As someone who is on social media a lot, I’ve seen no one condoning that stance. Not saying it doesn’t exist – but have not seen it on Threads and BlueSky.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Baud: So far as I can tell, it is true. Ukraine promised to support a 30 day cease fire so long as Russia does too.
rebelsdad
@BarcaChicago: IIRC this same person also said the other day that we should stop worrying about homeless people because it’s costing us votes.
TBone
Dotard and Elno and the spawn child just did a presser outside in the sunshine to show off the Deplorians that Dotard “purchased” today, wherein Dotard just bragged about a Ukraine ceasefire and Pooty, as well as doubling down on annexation of Canada.
Elno is going to double his cars production next year AND is making most without steering wheels because fully self driving! Yes, he really said that (his taxis) and Dotard said he would not be getting into one.
Nobody spontaneously combusted from lying, damnit.
Professor Bigfoot
@RaflW: Co-sign with Ms. Branstetter (and you).
This is about the fundamentals of the Constitution.
Baud
@suzanne:
I have heard that phrase. Never in relation to a real historical event other than Nazi Holocaust.
suzanne
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Nah, I think the integralists want to put the Church above the state. A different motivation than corruption.
suzanne
@Baud: I have heard it, but I haven’t ever used the term that way. I have no position on it, just saying that I have heard it used as mentioned.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@suzanne: Alito is openly corrupt. He says he is an integrationalist. That is what he claims; meanwhile, we know he is corrupt. He has gotta have those “tips”, don’t you know.
Jay
For those interested, this, if it happens, will be the 26th “ceasefire” agreement between ruZZia and Ukraine, and a reminder that ruZZia previously broke all past 25 “ceasefires”.
TBone
@Jay: yep, thank you. Every time their lips move…
TBone
@TBone: I forgot – he said he still wants Greenland too.
John S.
@Citizen Alan:
Some Jews be crazy like that. I don’t have any misgivings about the fact that other minority groups (like homosexuals, Roma, etc.) were also brutalized during the Holocaust. Acknowledging that fact doesn’t diminish the suffering of the Jews.
Belafon
@Baud: I wonder if this is related to the associate of Putin’s announcing that, since Trump is aligned with Putin now, there’s no need for a ceasefire.
Trollhattan
Watch out, the ‘rasslin woman is seeing the antisemitism everywhere she looks.
Your intermittent reminder that Ronald Fucking Reagan made his bones in part by attacking campuses and students as commie=loving no-goods, going so far as suggesting bloodshed as one possible solution. Right before Kent State.
Trollhattan
@Belafon:
A ceasing of ceasefires?
sentient ai from the future
@Trollhattan: this is what i’m screamin’
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: IMMEDIATE? that is genuinely great news if true. previously, as in just a few hours ago, it was conditional on a ceasefire, which UKR had accepted but Putin had indicated he didn’t want.
sentient ai from the future
@Trollhattan: to anyone with better search skills than me, i would like a direct quote from that speech of his, i only know it from old Jello Biafra spoken word albums.
Belafon
@Trollhattan: When Turning Point USA shows up on campus, schools need to make sure they’re kept out to protect their Jewish students.
Steve LaBonne
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Both. He’s more than happy to get paid for doing what he wants to do anyway.
TBone
@Trollhattan: also under sanctions threat are Drexel, Swarthmore, Temple, and Rutgers here on this Coast. U. of Penna also bracing for funding cuts…
Hubby saw on Teh News that DOE employees were given until 6pm tonight to “evacuate.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/department-of-education-offices-closed-wednesday-for-security-reasons/ar-AA1AIxYh
I practically live on Bucknell campus:
https://bucknellian.net/131342/news/faculty-discuss-changing-federal-policies-impact-on-bucknell/
Trollhattan
@sentient ai from the future:
This is copied from a digitized NYT article dateline April 18, 1970. Interesting to see he was bring pressed on the bloodbath remark even BEFORE Kent State, which would not occur until May 4.
What a guy.
sentient ai from the future
@Trollhattan: thank you.
musical coda:
https://youtu.be/6lIqNjC1RKU
TBone
This seems to be a bit
deafdaftill-advised in this moment (per The Inky):Professor Bigfoot
@suzanne: Precisely so.
He ain’t DONE nothin’ ‘cept run his damn mouth, and we hold the right to peacefully dissent a sacred right ‘round here.
He has EVERY right to run his damn mouth without any government coercion.
Even if I think he’s wrong (and I don’t.)
cain
@Baud: I think this is more about them wanting to be in the loop so they can pass it on to Putin. I think they got pissed off that they weren’t invited to the Paris talk.
cain
@Trollhattan:
I expect liberal Jewish students to start trolling this administration.
sentient ai from the future
ugh. these fucking people.
https://youtu.be/xaMMfPk36GE
Ohio Mom
@suzanne: Lefty Jews on Blue Sky are saying, We don’t like anything about this guy but he should have due process and be treated fairly because when the rule of law goes, it’s always bad for the Jews.
To which I say, Yes, fascism and totalitarianism are alway bad for the Jews, it would be nice if you could drop the enlightened self-interest part and just be for what is right and just, as our tradition commands us to be.
Today I decided that if I was going to have a meme, it would be, “Yes, Israel has a right to exist, so does North Korea. Doesn’t mean I have to like either of them.”
Kirk
So another source of the alarm is that apparently the acting executive secretary of USAID has ordered every document in the classified safes and personnel files shredded. Source: bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social
Ohio Mom
@Baud: I have, but only colloquially. I don’t ever remember a scholar, writer, or other authoritative source calling another genocide or ethnic cleansing a Holocaust. (Please note, this is a very idiosyncratic sampling).
Darkrose
@Trollhattan: I thought it was interesting that Cal Poly Humboldt, where students took over the administration building, and UCLA, where they called the cops out, are not on the list. Meanwhile, UC Davis, which did not call the cops and let the students have an encampment on the Quad (which pretty much went away after finals in June), and Sac State, where students met with the administration and came to a resolution, are on the list.
The main harassment at Davis was from pro-Israel students harassing and trying to disrupt the protests. Some pro-Israel students also complained about the Library’s resource guide on the conflict, claiming that it was biased toward the Palestinian point of view. Chancellor May was not about to call the cops because he actually learns from history.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: @Professor Bigfoot: I am aghast to see so many Dems essentially washing their hands of caring about Palestine because they dislike the protestors, found them annoying, or disapproved of how some American Muslims voted. Forming your political views based on what you think others can do for you is craven and cynical AF. Either Dems stand for peace and human rights in that region — for Palestinians and Israelis alike — or we don’t really stand for anything at all.
Ohio Mom
@John S.: I get pretty irritated when Jewish groups go on about The Six Million. It seems to me to be a peculiar type of Holocaust denialism to leave out the other five million victims.
And now (now? It’s been 27 years!) I am the mother of a autistic man, the Nazi’s focus on murdering disabled people has extra resonance.
cain
West Virginia in the news – https://www.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/comments/1j8wq4y/bill_allowing_doctors_to_inspect_childrens/
What is with these people’s obsession with genitals. Seriously, did nobody not debate this. They don’t even have to inform the parents? WTF..
TBone
@sentient ai from the future:
TBone
@cain: FYI at the link inside, I got a 404 AND a Notice of Correction: the Bill will not allow inspection of childrens’ genitals.
KatInBuffalo
@suzanne: THIS. Khalil is low-hanging fruit in large part because of this.
WaterGirl
@RaflW: Just like it’s not okay that person X was shot and killed by the police because they were a thug who once did something wrong. The two things are completely unrelated and having an imperfect record does not make murder not murder.
TBone
@Kirk: adding insult to injury, more breaking news
https://bsky.app/profile/klasfeldreports.com/post/3lk56aqinj72r
TBone
@TBone: 🎶 spitting, hissing mad music
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sVzvRsl4rEM
TBone
All hands on deck 🎶
🚨 WTF, OVER?!?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mbjQiqkaD3U
As a cop once called my bestie to say while I was in a cell
TBone
https://action.aclu.org/give/protect-rights-freedoms-we-believe-4-multistep
https://www.aclu.org/
sab
@TBone: Woo hoo! What an amazing victory!!! ////
JaySinWA
@cain:
@TBone: https://www.wdtv.com/2025/03/11/correction-bill-passed-by-wv-lawmakers-will-not-allow-doctors-inspect-childs-genitals-confirm-gender/
Yes, they tried, passed the inspection amendment and then passed an amendment nullifying the inspection amendment.
TBone
@sab:
I’m not sure I understand, since it is not clear which statement is correct. Can inspect, or cannot inspect,?ETA thank you again JayS!
sab
@Ohio Mom: I am the grandmother of an autistic child, born a generation later than yours and our supports and outcomes are so very much better, and Trump and his muskrats want to wipe all that out.
Meanwhile, the only government people I am aware of quitting State Department in anguish over Gaza and our failings there in were young Jews. There were a bunch of them. Everyone else just hunkered down and followed orders. I am not Jewish and I will rember that. Where the morality was.
TBone
@sab: thank you for your snark tag! Whadda way to spend time and tax dollars!
ETA hugs
JaySinWA
@JaySinWA: Here’s the text from the correction link. WV votes “WTF?”
sab
@TBone: Where do I come into this discussion? Your comment links give no clue.
TBone
@JaySinWA: clear as mud to me! “Certainly…”
TBone
@sab: yours #99 linked to my reply to Cain at #92
JaySinWA
@TBone: I didn’t get the rest of the article in my copy paste
Darkrose
I know this is an old thread, but this from Sen. Chris Murphy seems straightforward and to the point:
https://bsky.app/profile/yasharali.bsky.social/post/3lk55zle5dk2c
m.j.
Trump is working his way up to murder. He idolizes Putin and his power. He thinks it’s the epitome of power to throw a musician out his ninth -floor flat’s window because he wrote protest songs.
TBone
@TBone: ACLU today (why I linked to above links):
Birdie
@Suzanne: I 100% get where you are coming from. I can’t help it though. I feel the same way about the rural and red state voters who received the vast majority of economic benefits from Democratic-passed legislation. Democrats do good for people who hate them and get hated more. That’s not a fun place to be.
Ohio Mom
@sab: There is a definite growing split in the Jewish community over recent events.
It’s going to take the liberal side a long time to separate though, they are committed to the nostalgic idea that we are one people, all for one, one for all.
They ignore that the Orthodox couldn’t care less about anybody but themselves, and also ignore the unfortunate fact that most of the national leadership organizations have been captured by Republicans.
There is a reason half of American Jews are unaffiliated and belong to neither a synagogue, a Jewish community center nor any other Jewish organization.
Citizen Alan
@cain: honestly, i consider all republicans to be presumptively rapist and pedophiles. Thankfully, most of them are cowards, afraid of going to prison, and so resist their urges. But I think at this point, every republican would probably rape somebody if they thought they could get away with it. They’re just a depraved class of people.
Suzanne
@Birdie: The thing is….. the people of Palestine, who haven’t had an election in almost two decades…. they’re not MAGA voters. I don’t care if obnoxious American college kids blocked traffic or made a ruckus. That doesn’t change the fact that the people of Palestine deserve to live in peace, prosperity, and equality.
TiredOfItAll
@Gretchen: I don’t know the answer to that, I’m afraid. Maybe I’ll find out tomorrow.