Immigration and Customs Enforcement declared that its brokers have been diligently at work imposing “400+ federal laws” to forestall the next from crossing “the border illegally”: folks, cash, merchandise and concepts, in a put up to social media website X that was deleted hours afterward Thursday.
It seems that the nation’s major immigration enforcement company has, no less than briefly, declared itself the border thought police. In a rustic that’s speculated to consider within the freedom of speech and thought, this raises a bunch of questions.
What concepts does ICE consider are unlawful? How can concepts even cross the border illegally? And the way does ICE display for these unlawful concepts to cease them from coming in?
ICE didn’t reply to those questions however did inform HuffPost that the “post was sent without proper approval and should not have been shared.”
“‘Ideas’ should have said ‘intellectual property,’” a spokesperson for ICE mentioned in an e mail.
That isn’t to say the Trump administration and ICE aren’t policing concepts that they deem “illegal,” together with by stripping visas and inexperienced playing cards from college students, denying entry to international guests and arresting and deporting folks for his or her opinions.
Chief amongst them is any criticism of Israel. The administration has sought the deportation of quite a few college students for his or her participation in or assist for protests towards Israel’s battle in Gaza. Essentially the most excessive profile of those circumstances are these of Columbia College scholar Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts College scholar Rumeysa Ozturk.
Khalil, a authorized everlasting resident, was a spokesperson for the coed protests towards Israel’s battle in Gaza. He had by no means been arrested or discovered to have participated in any act past his free train of speech. The administration stripped him of his authorized standing, arrested him and moved to deport him.
Equally, Ozturk, who’s on a scholar visa, merely co-wrote an op-ed in her scholar paper calling for the college to comply with a scholar decision to divest from sure corporations concerned in Israel. She was stripped of her scholar visa, picked up by unidentified ICE brokers off a avenue in Massachusetts and whisked to a detention facility in Louisiana.
Like Khalil, the administration is looking for to deport Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old Columbia College scholar and authorized everlasting resident who moved to the U.S. from South Korea when she was 7 years outdated. Chung was stripped of her authorized standing for taking part in protests towards the battle in Gaza and is difficult her case in court docket. She received a non permanent restraining order March 25 blocking her detention whereas her case strikes ahead.
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These are solely three of dozens, if not tons of, of comparable circumstances the place visa holders and authorized residents are being punished for his or her concepts.
The administration explicitly states that Khalil and others are being deported for his or her concepts. In a letter to the court docket listening to Khalil’s case despatched April 9, the State Division declared that Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved to strip him of authorized standing and deport him solely on the premise of his “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful,” in line with The Related Press.
Whether or not ICE truly plans to comply with by means of on its social media put up and display for “illegal” concepts stays to be seen. However one factor might be assured, these difficult the administration’s efforts to strip college students, professors and different guests of their visas or authorized standing for the concepts they maintain are certain to level to this social media put up as proof as they problem the Trump administration’s assault on the First Modification in court docket.
