Associated Press: Pressed for evidence against Mahmoud Khalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs

 NEW YORK (AP) — Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal government has instead submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens whose presence in the country damages U.S. foreign policy interests.

The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations against Israel's treatment of Palestinians and the war in Gaza.

Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs.

He said that while Khalil's activities were “otherwise lawful,” letting him remain in the country would undermine “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”

“Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective," Rubio wrote in the undated memo.

The submission was filed Wednesday after Judge Jamee Comans ordered the government to produce its evidence against Khalil ahead of a hearing Friday on whether it can continue detaining him during immigration proceedings.

Attorneys for Khalil said the memo proved the Trump administration was “targeting Mahmoud’s free speech rights about Palestine.”

“After a month of hiding the ball since Mahmoud’s late-night unjust arrest in New York and taking him away to a remote detention center in Louisiana, immigration authorities have finally admitted that they have no case whatsoever against him,” the attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout and Johnny Sinodis, said in a joint statement.

“There is not a single shred of proof that Mahmoud’s presence in America poses any threat,” they added.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, did not respond to questions about whether it had additional evidence against Khalil, writing in an emailed statement, “DHS did file evidence, but immigration court dockets are not available to the public.”

Khalil, a 30-year-old Palestinian by ethnicity who was born in Syria, was arrested March 8 in New York and taken to a detention center in Louisiana. He recently finished his coursework for a master's degree at Columbia’s school of international affairs. His wife, an American citizen, is due to give birth this month.

Khalil has adamantly rejected allegations of antisemitism, accusing the Trump administration in a letter sent from jail last month of “targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent.”

“Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances,” he added, “I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.”

Though Rubio's memo references additional documents, including a “subject profile of Mahmoud Khalil” and letter from the Department Homeland Security, the government did not submit those documents to the immigration court, according to Khalil's lawyers.

The memo also calls for the deportation of a second lawful permanent resident, whose name is redacted in the filing.

The Trump administration has pulled billions of dollars in government funding from universities and their affiliated hospital systems in recent weeks as part of what it says is a campaign against antisemitism on college campuses, but which critics say is a crackdown on free speech. To get the money back, the administration has been telling universities to punish protesters and make other changes.

The U.S. government has also been revoking the visas of international students who criticized Israel or accused it of mistreating Palestinians.

At the time of Khalil's arrest, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson accused Khalil of leading activities “aligned to Hamas,” referring to the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

But the government has not produced any evidence linking Khalil to Hamas, and made no reference to the group in their most recent filing.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Yunseo Chung, 21, another Columbia student and lawful U.S. resident whom the Department of Homeland Security seeks to deport, included the Rubio letter as an exhibit in court papers filed late Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

The lawyers asked a judge to let them obtain documents from the government related to the targeting of their client, including any that reference her by name related to the State Department’s decision to move to deport her.

Chung, who was arrested on a misdemeanor charge at a recent sit-in at Barnard College protesting the expulsion of students who participated in pro-Palestinian activism, has been ordered freed while her legal challenge is pending.

Canada unveils $29.8B counter-tariffs on U.S.

 

Canada is hitting back at the United States with additional counter-tariffs worth $29.8 billion in response to new duties on Canadian steel and aluminum as a trade war between the two North American neighbours escalates.

The federal government made the announcement after a 25 per cent tariff imposed by the U.S. on all steel and aluminum imports from Canada and America’s other trading partners went into effect Wednesday.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada’s new 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. eastern on Thursday and apply to steel products worth $12.6 billion, aluminum products worth $3 billion and additional imported U.S. goods worth $14.2 billion.

“With these most recent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, the U.S. administration is once again inserting disruption and disorder into an incredibly successful trading partnership and raising the costs of everyday goods for Canadians and American households alike,” LeBlanc said.

“We will not stand idly by while our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said these tariffs pose “an existential threat to our country” and Canada will continue to “fight back against this nonsense.”

“The only constant in this unjustified and unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump’s talks of annexing our country through economic coercion,” she told reporters on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump had on Tuesday threatened to double the planned metal tariffs to 50 per cent in response to Ontario’s decision to impose a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S., which was retaliation for Trump imposing sweeping 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods last week.The White House on Tuesday afternoon said the steel and aluminum tariffs would go ahead at 25 per cent instead of 50 per cent after Ontario suspended its electricity tax for three U.S. states.

The new counter-tariffs from Canada add to the 25 per cent counter-tariffs on $30 billion worth of U.S. goods that were imposed last week in response to the broad-based duties. Ottawa says these will remain in place until all of Trump’s tariffs are lifted.

Confused about how we got here? Click here for a timeline of Trump’s tariff threats and trade actions.LeBlanc said the federal government will continue to press the Trump administration to fully scrap the tariffs, while also working to support Canadian businesses and workers through “these challenging times.”

On Friday, the federal government unveiled new support measures worth $6.5 billion to mitigate the impact of the U.S. trade war on Canadian workers.

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon also announced the temporary expansion of the “work-sharing program” to let employers cut hours while keeping workers in their jobs with income support.

Canadian provinces have separately unveiled their own retaliatory measures.

On Monday, Ontario introduced a 25 per cent tax on all electricity exported from the province to Michigan, Minnesota and New York in response to the U.S. tariffs on Canadian products. A day later, the province backed down and said there would be a meeting with U.S. officials on Thursday.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said he and LeBlanc will join Ontario Premier Doug Ford for that meeting in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, Trump has threatened more rounds of tariffs on Canada’s auto sector and Canadian dairy and lumber. He’s also threatened so-called reciprocal tariffs on all of America’s trading partners, including Canada, which are set to kick in April 2.

How will the steel and aluminum tariffs impact Canada and U.S.?

The metal tariffs are expected to impact workers and businesses on both sides of the border.

The U.S. relies on Canada for 75 per cent of its imported primary aluminum, according to the Aluminum Association of Canada.“Trump is knowingly inflicting damage to the North American manufacturing sector with these inflationary tariffs that will injure workers, eliminate jobs, and hurt consumers,” Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, said in a statement Wednesday.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce said Trump’s tariffs are “proven to fail,” adding that the last time he tariffed steel and aluminum imports in 2018, it resulted in the “net loss of tens of thousands of American blue-collar jobs.”

“Steel and aluminum are about strength; these tariffs do nothing but weaken us both,” said Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.“President Trump may as well hand over North America’s steel and aluminum leadership to China.”

David Adams, president and CEO of the Global Automakers of Canada, said tariffs on steel and aluminum will only make vehicles that are built in the U.S. more costly for Americans.

“The increased price of American-built vehicles sold in Canada will make those vehicles less competitive in the Canadian market,” Adams said.Canada is not the only country being hit by the steel and aluminum tariffs.

Trump’s executive order, which kicked in 12:01 a.m. eastern Wednesday, applies to all steel and aluminum imports from America’s trading partners, with no exceptions or exemptions.