Art Arthur
speaker
206 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard 14 Feb
Art Arthur’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Feb 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Yeah. And, you know, that goes to one of their key talking points or one of their, you know, core beliefs. And that is that Donald Trump has authoritarian instincts, that he is, you know, a totalitarian and that if we don't fight for the rights of the least deserving individuals in this country, that eventually the rights of ordinary citizens could be impinged or impugned.
But plainly, these are individuals who are foreign nationals. They have very limited rights in the United States. especially once they're outside the United States. And I think that that's overblown. But, you know, this whole concept that, you know, Trump has these authoritarian instincts, that he's different from any president in history. I served under six different presidents.
And, you know, I can assure you that when it came to immigration, Joe Biden was the outlier, not Donald Trump. So, yeah, I mean, and Trump also inherited a very significant situation because of the Biden administration's immigration policies, where he does have to deal with a lot of immigrant criminals in this country. The immigration court system is slow.
The Alien Enemies Act is a lot quicker if courts allow him to use it.
So Mahmoud Khalil is a graduate student or a person who's about to graduate from Columbia University. He was born in Syria, a Palestinian parent, and he is married to a United States citizen who's pregnant with his child. He has a green card. I believe he got his green card back in November.
And he was arrested a few weeks back by ICE officers because the State Department has determined that his presence in the United States has potentially serious adverse foreign policy implications for the United States. There's a specific ground of removability, Section 237A4C.
that permits the Secretary of State to make such a determination and that renders an individual against whom such determination has been made removable from the United States, even if you have a green card. And the basic idea is that, you know, this person simply being in the United States has some very serious foreign policy impact. And for that reason, the person has to go.
Probably the best scenario that you and I could think about for this would be the Shah of Iran. You remember, after he was deposed, the Shah came to the United States for medical treatment. And his presence in this country, you know, eventually led to the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. So, and that's really why Congress wrote that law. And now it's being used against Mr. Khalil.
He's sitting in custody in Louisiana right now. What do you think? The really critical part of this, Mike, and this is the part that nobody's talking about, is what that foreign policy interest is. Secretary of State Rubio has talked a lot about this guy and about how aliens in the United States don't have a right to live here permanently. And he's more or less correct about that.
A lot of people are missing that crucial point. There are a couple of things. One could be our foreign policy relationship with Israel.
Mr. Khalil has apparently been implicated in some way in protests that happened at Columbia University by a group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and CUAD, as they're called, has been accused of some criminal activity that they've threatened Jewish students and other students going to class in Columbia. So it's possible that the foreign policy implication could be
the treatment that foreign students at Columbia University are receiving. If you're a Jewish student from Canada or Germany or the UK and you feel threatened in going to class, you know, that's going to have foreign policy implications because the way we treat foreign nationals in the United States is more or less the way we expect other people to treat us.
I think that Marco Rubio's ultimate letter, which hasn't been disclosed, is going to be very enlightening on these issues.
And so I've actually taken a look at what purports to be the notice to appear in his case. And it both says that he was a student and that he is a lawful permanent resident. So he probably adjusted his status. That's perfectly legal. You can go from being a tourist to being a green card holder or a student. That part is legal.
But to your point, and I have a feeling I know where you're going with this, the law is clear that the Secretary of State cannot make this determination based upon statements, beliefs, or associations or activities and associations in the United States that are lawful in the United States, which means that Marco Rubio seems to think that Mr. Khalil has done something that would be unlawful in this country.
Now, and this is an important caveat that I have to add. Even if Khalil's activities were lawful and even if Rubio has made the determination that they were, if his presence implicates a compelling or compromises a compelling foreign policy issue, then he could still go ahead, Rubio could still go ahead and move to deport Khalil. So, that letter is going to be absolutely crucial.
So that letter has to be presented to the immigration judge at the time that Mr. Khalil is presented in immigration court so that the judge can make a determination that it was properly issued. And really, the only part of this that the judge can rule on is whether or not it was properly issued. The judge can't second guess the foreign policy interest that was asserted.
But I think both sides in this case, Mike, and I think this is really the interesting part, both sides are looking forward to that hearing. And, you know, wait to see whether Khalil allows that hearing to be public or whether, you know, he asked for the courtroom to be closed. Is that up to Khalil and his attorneys to make that decision?
He can make that request and the judge generally will grant those requests. But I think that Mr. Khalil probably wants to use that hearing as a platform by which to say, I'm just a good guy. I'm simply here in the United States. I'm going to be the father of a child. You know, and, you know, to sort of, you know, present his political views.
I think that the administration is interested in, you know, using that hearing as a platform at which you can discuss everything that happened in Columbia University. If you do all the reading on the on this case and what happened in Columbia, I'm sure you have. I know I have. you know, it's all over the map. On the one hand, you know, they're simply peacefully protesting.
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