The Trump administration has not accused the activist of any criminal behavior but has said he is aligned with Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls Gaza and is designated as a terrorist organization by the US. It has invoked an obscure legal provision to try to deport him.
One of his lawyers, Donna Lieberman, told CNN on Friday in a TV interview: “This is a targeted, retaliatory and extreme attack on the right of free expression” and said Khalil was being detained “for having ideas.”
“They’re not claiming he did anything illegal they just don’t like what he has said,” she added, warning: “It’s an attempt to bully students, faculty and the rest of us … this move to quell free speech is absolutely terrifying.”
The lawyers said in their filing that his treatment by federal authorities from Saturday, when he was first arrested, to Monday reminded Khalil of when he left Syria shortly after the forced disappearance of his friends there during a period of arbitrary detention in 2013.
I’m sure that was the intention