The Trump Administration has promised to deport immigrants and foreign students who engage in pro-"terrorist" speech related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yesterday, ICE arrested Palestinian activist and former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, and plan to deport him. To put it mildly, I have little sympathy for recent anti-Israel campus protests. Nonetheless, deporting people for engaging in anti-Israel, pro-terrorist, or pro-Hamas speech is both unconstitutional and unjust. It also risks creating a dangerous slippery slope.
The First Amendment's protection for freedom of speech, like most constitutional rights, is not limited to US citizens. The text of the First Amendment is worded as a general limitation on government power, not a form of special protection for a particular group of people, such as US citizens or permanent residents. The Supreme Court held as much in a 1945 case, where they ruled that "Freedom of speech and of press is accorded aliens residing in this country."
