Trump Administration

First They Came For…

Plus: Democrats' filibuster hypocrisy, Trump bombs Yemen, March Madness, and more...

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Demonstrators protesting the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil | Probal Rashid/Sipa USA/Newscom
(Probal Rashid/Sipa USA/Newscom)

…Mahmoud Khalil, but the Trump administration's simultaneous crackdown on due process and free speech for legal immigrants clearly won't stop there. Khalil, a green card holder and former Columbia University grad student who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) more than a week ago, remains incarcerated in Louisiana—despite not having been charged with any crimes.

"The Trump administration possesses neither wisdom nor courage, and it is now in the process of using claims of antisemitism on campus as a justification for grave violations of due process and free speech," writes David French in The New York Times. French, a former First Amendment litigator, argues that this won't end with Khalil, and that "just as we rightly look back in shame at the excesses of McCarthyism, we will look back in shame at the excesses of this moment—if we permit anger at campus protests to overwhelm our commitment to due process and free speech."

The administration maintains that it has the power to revoke Khalil's green card and deport him because he helped lead pro-Palestinian protests. Indeed, it's becoming clear that Khalil was targeted because of his speech, rather than any other conduct that might be reasonably construed as criminal behavior. "The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law," an administration official told The Free Press last week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has outlined a similarly broad view of the government's powers: "No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card," he said last week.

True, but green card holders do have rights—and the government does not have the power to detain anyone without due process. That should not be controversial. You might find Khalil's beliefs distasteful, but the question here is not whether he deserves an award. It's whether he gets to enjoy the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Such rights matter because they are not subject to qualification.

In the meantime, read Reason's Robby Soave, who says the "detention of a student activist for engaging in what would clearly be considered First Amendment–protected activity under other circumstances is very alarming."

Meanwhile, the federal government is subjecting other immigrants and permanent residents to inhumane and possibly illegal treatment. Fabian Schmidt, an engineer who has held a green card since 2008, was reportedly detained and brutally interrogated by ICE at Boston's Logan International Airport. A local NPR station, which spoke with Schmidt's relatives, reports that the German national was stripped naked, subjected to a cold shower, and not allowed to eat, drink, or sleep. He ended up in the hospital after the ordeal. (Schmidt has a marijuana conviction on his record, but—needless to say—that should in no way justify such treatment.)

Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant doctor at Brown University's medical school, was deported over the weekend "even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion," The New York Times reported on Sunday.

And President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act—a law passed in 1798 as part of the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts—to authorize the detention and deportation of anyone suspected of being a part of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan drug gang. Almost immediately, a federal judge blocked enforcement of that executive order. For good reason, since the law requires a declaration of war. (Read more from Ilya Somin on the legal issues with using the Alien Enemies Act against immigrants.)

The Trump administration seems to have defied that judicial order by deporting 250 Venezuelans to El Salvador before the move could be blocked—and then refusing to turn the planes around (and possibly having more take off) after it had been. White House officials told The New York Times they couldn't discuss the matter in detail because of "national security," which frankly sounds like bullshit.

Lindsay Toczylowski, an immigration attorney representing one of the Venezuelan asylum seekers deported over the weekend, highlighted how the Trump administration is short-circuiting immigrants' due process in a thread on Bluesky.

The Alien Enemies Act would allow the Trump administration to remove people from the US based on an accusation alone. The accusation could be, as it is for our client, completely baseless. But they would remove them anyway, despite the dangers, despite the lack of due process.

— Lindsay Toczylowski (@l-toczylowski.bsky.social) 2025-03-16T03:33:38.093Z

Due process matters. Yes, even for people who protest in favor of Hamas. Yes, even for people suspected of having ties to a Venezuelan drug gang. Yes, for everyone.

This was never going to end with Khalil. Indeed, Trump is now explicitly promising as much.

Filibuster hypocrisy. Kyrsten Sinema, the Democrat turned independent who used to represent Arizona in the Senate, spent the weekend handing out some well-deserved told-you-sos after prominent Democrats demanded that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) use the filibuster to stop a Republican-backed spending bill from clearing the Senate last week.

Sinema, you may recall, saved the filibuster in 2021 and 2022 when then-President Joe Biden and many other Democrats wanted to cast it aside in order to pass legislation with a simple majority. At the time, she argued that Democrats were being short-sighted and should preserve the filibuster to defend against a future Republican majority—exactly the thing that Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) now want to see happen.

Speaking as as a fan of the filibuster and of politicians getting mocked for rank hypocrisy, this is all pretty great.

Anti-war president does some war. President Trump authorized a series of strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen on Saturday. In a post on Truth Social, Trump praised the use of "overwhelming lethal force" against the group. More than 30 were killed in the attack, according to the Associated Press.

On Sunday, a drone and missile attack targeted an American ship in the Red Sea. No casualties were reported.

As Matt Yglesias notes, there's a fair bit of irony in Trump launching an attack on Yemen, ostensibly to protect international shipping channels, while he's simultaneously engaged in a multi-front economic war against international trade.

Scenes from March Madness: The greatest sporting event of the year is once again upon us, and we want you, dear readers, to be a part of the action. Join our bracket contest here and also get signed up for Free Agent, a new sports and politics newsletter from Reason's Jason Russell. You could win $750, plus bragging rights in the comments section for the next 12 months.

George Mason University, with its prominent connections to the libertarian movement, was this close to getting into the tournament on Sunday. Better luck next year, Patriots.

Need a Reason-centric rooting interest for the next few weeks? Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward's alma mater could be a bracket-buster, and Senior Editor Stephanie Slade's school is a favorite to go all the way. What are you waiting for?

QUICK HITS

  • Scientists and public health officials "might have withheld relevant information and even misled the public" about the origins of COVID-19, writes the Princeton sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. She might be onto something there.
  • President Donald Trump claims that the last-minute pardons issued by outgoing President Joe Biden are "void, vacant, and of no future force of effect." That could be the first step towards trying to prosecute some of the people who got those pardons—or it might be Trump just being crazy, hard to tell.
  • Good read from The Wall Street Journal on how laying off federal workers without also reducing/offloading/privatizing government functions sometimes just means it's harder for people to access those services.
  • A silver lining in an otherwise awful trade war: Canada might scrap some of its bad booze laws.
  • Tariffs are a hell of a drug: