Hawley Decries Anti-Hate Activist’s Defense of Hamas Sympathizer Khalil

A Senate committee met Thursday to expose and combat antisemitic disruptions on college campuses around the country with the aim of ensuring safe learning environments for all students.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee member Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., took one of the witnesses to task for criticizing the decision of the Trump administration to financially punish Columbia University for failing to curtail antisemitism and its bid to deport former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil.

“This isn’t speech. Lying on a visa application is not speech. Seeking to assault Columbia University employees and Jewish students is not speech. You are defending an individual who has espoused the destruction of this country, the destruction of the state of Israel, the destruction of Jews, and has taken actions in furtherance of the same,” Hawley said to Kenneth Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

In his opening remarks, Hawley noted that Stern had advocated that Khalil not be deported and asked Stern to explain his position. 

“He hasn’t been charged with a crime,” Stern said, contending that the administration was targeting Khalil for his speech and that the actions may backfire on Jews by making it seem like they are trying to silence dissent.

The Missouri senator responded by citing current U.S. immigration law. 

“No. 1, as you very well know, United States law says that a noncitizen is inadmissible for entry into this country if they, and I quote, endorse or espouse terrorist activity or persuade others to do the same. That same law provides you can be removed for the same reasons. That is what Mr. Khalil has been accused of,” Hawley said.

Current federal law gives the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, expansive authority to deport any “alien whose presence or activities in the United States the secretary of state has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” Rubio has also cited the Department of Homeland Security, which stated that “Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

“And our law makes clear, if you endorse or espouse terrorist activity, you can be removed from this country,” Hawley said.

Khalil also faces charges from the United States that he willfully omitted his work for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees and the Syria office at the British Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on his green card application.

Then-President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan spending bill in 2024 that halted U.S. funding to UNRWA after the Biden administration accused 12 of UNRWA’s employees of participating in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

“He has further been accused of by the United States government of lying on his visa application. That on its own would be sufficient to remove him from this country,” Hawley added.

According to U.S. law, green card applicants are guilty of fraud if they “conceal group memberships” that would threaten their residency status. 

Hawley noted that Khalil is currently being sued by the families of Israeli hostages taken during the October 2023 attack by Hamas. The lawsuit alleges that Khalil and other leaders of pro-Palestine groups on campus had prior knowledge of the massacre, and it cites the alleged reactivation of Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine’s Instagram account just three minutes before the attack as evidence. 

“Jews are vulnerable now on our campuses because of people like Khalil, and I want to say for the record, I’m glad he’s gone, and I hope he never comes back,” Hawley concluded. 

The Trump administration has sought to confront antisemitism on college campuses by threatening to cut federal funding unless the universities enforce Title VI civil rights protections for Jewish students. That has taken the form of threatening to withhold $400 million in federal funding for Columbia University.