Fox News Publishes Op-Ed by Trump Deportation Lightning Rod Mahmoud Khalil Warning ‘It Could Happen to You, Too’

Ted Shaffrey/AP photo

Fox News published an op-ed on Wednesday penned by none other than Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student that the Trump administration attempted to deport last year in a closely-watched, hotly-debated case.

Under the headline, “The US government targeted me for my political speech. It could happen to you, too,” Khalil wrote that while he “had a vision of the United States as the land of the free, a place where freedom of speech was cherished and where I could study freely,” that vision was “shattered” last March, when “Multiple plainclothes ICE agents in unmarked cars grabbed me, without a warrant, from the lobby of my apartment building in New York and threw me on a plane to a federal detention center in Louisiana.”

“Throughout my 104 days in federal detention, during which I missed the birth of my first child, I considered myself a political prisoner. The government had deprived me of my liberty, not because I had broken any laws, but because it didn’t like what I had to say,” submitted Khalil, who accused the government of scrambling to “add accusations” after he challenged Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s decision to have him deported on the grounds that his activism was anti-Semitic and undermined American foreign policy goals.

He continued:

The government isn’t allowed to control how we can speak and think. Attorneys representing me in my case, and others like me in similar cases, argued this point in court and secured our release from detention. But my case is still ongoing, and the executive branch’s immigration agency may soon order my deportation. So, I ask Americans directly: do you want to live in a country where you can be snatched off the street by plainclothes agents for your thoughts?

In Assad’s Syria, where I grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp, that was routine. Since the beginning of 2025, the United States, a country whose Constitution protects freedom of speech, has seen an increase in these actions that I once associated with Assad: abductions by plainclothes officers without warrants, forced detention of people who express views the government doesn’t like, and the targeted silencing of dissent.

I will continue to use my platform to advocate for human rights in Palestine. But I ask each and every person reading this to use their voice to defend our First Amendment rights. The right to speak our minds, no matter who holds power, is the foundation of our democracy, and it is in peril. Whatever you may think of me or my views, that foundation belongs to all of us.

Khalil has been criticized by many conservatives over his reticence to condemn Hamas, but has also been championed by opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

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