Today It’s Mahmoud Khalil — Tomorrow It Could Be Us: We Must Protect Due Process

Due process is under attack in the United States and it is of paramount importance for the Jewish community to stand up against it. 

On March 8th, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil for his role in organizing pro-Palestinian rallies on campus. His case is about more than just campus politics—it is a test of America’s commitment to due process. And the Jewish community should be paying close attention.

Let me be crystal clear, Jewish students on college campuses deserve to feel safe. In the nearly year and a half since the terrible October 7th terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas against Israel, many Jewish students on campuses across the country have felt ostracized and targeted by the rallies that took place in the weeks following the start of the war in Gaza. On my own Penn campus, the administration even admitted that these protests violated University policy and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Enforcement of the law and university policy is critical to protecting the rights of all students on campus and ensuring that universities remain the incubators for open inquiry and the pursuit of truth that they are meant to be.

But this is not the way.  

US green card holders have rights and are protected by the promises of due process under the Constitution. These protections are what have made the United States such a special country and which has allowed the Jewish community in America to flourish. Arresting and deporting people whose views we find abhorrent flies in the face of these rights which we, as the Jewish community, should hold dear.

The Trump Administration claims that Khalil supports Hamas and has been complicit in crimes committed as part of the rallies he helped organize. If these accusations are true, they should be proven through legal proceedings—not through arbitrary detention and deportation. We have laws in this country to protect against these alleged crimes and laws are what must be upheld — not the whim of the leader. Due process exists to ensure that accusations, no matter how serious, are tested against the law rather than decided by executive impulse. While fast tracking due process against those we disagree with may achieve perceived desirable short-term results, it risks leading to disastrous ends. 

The Executive Branch may have broad authority on matters of immigration, but the use of vague statutory language to target and deport a protester that the Administration disagrees with without charging the protester with a crime is not only bad policy — it’s dangerous. 

I likely disagree with Khalil on pretty much everything when it comes to Middle Eastern politics and have concerns about the conduct of protesters on campuses around the country – but, that’s not the point. The rights that protect Khalil are not merely his rights, rather, they’re our rights as Americans – and we must take care to protect them. 

This is not a liberal issue or a conservative issue — it’s an American issue. 

The Jewish community should be acutely sensitive to this concern – not just because protecting individual rights is a moral good, but because it is in our communal self interest. For millennia, Jews have been a minority without protection at the mercy of the majority or its leader. All too often throughout Jewish history that didn’t end well. The blessings of America have offered the Jewish community some amazing protections, but let us not be so arrogant as to forget what life could be like for our community without the preservation of those freedoms. 

Jews have too often found themselves the victims of arbitrary persecution when the rule of law was disregarded. From the Dreyfus Affair, to the Nuremberg Laws, to the Soviet oppression of Jews, Jewish history is riddled with examples of the Jewish community falling victim to the weaponization of the law. It is precisely because America has largely upheld due process that the Jewish community has been able to thrive in ways it could not elsewhere.

But this security is not guaranteed — it depends on our commitment to safeguarding those rights for everyone. 

When the legal system is eroded for even one person, it becomes easier to erode it for others. A government that weaponizes the law today can just as easily use it against others tomorrow. We have seen this before—when democratic norms and protections weaken, Jews have often been among the first to suffer. The same legal safeguards that should protect Khalil now are the ones that ensure the Jewish community’s security in the future.

So, when due process is short-circuited, even if we may agree with its short-term effects, the collective intuition of the American Jewish community should be to speak out and stand firmly on the side of the rule of law —because history has taught us that compromising on these values comes at a high cost.

Today it is Mohamed Khalil’s rights, but tomorrow it could be ours.